#Brd file viewer software#
#Brd file viewer free#

One of these days it will get cheaper, but basically there's nobody pushing it forward. I have reluctantly accepted that it costs $2k to process a board for automated manufacturing,Īnd another $2K for just to setup the machines each time. There is no reason it has to be this hard. I fully support your vision of what is needed to take the next step in CAM. The actual PCB has plated slots and plated edges, which I would like to try to render eventually too. Note that this board was built, so we at least know it can be rendered. Attached is top copper of a file which crashes the flattening algorithm. I'm using an old version of orcad, and doing complicated fills. It has saved me countless hours and I advise all my colleagues to use this tool. PWB understandable by early career engineers, managers, customers and experienced technologists in a way never before available.

Selecting a discrete net found in the IPC-356 file makes trouble-shootingĪ visual process, not just the domain of lab techs with cumbersome diagnostic equipment.

Gives an unprecedented view into the inner stackup of a board. Exploding (spread function) the layers with void/prepreg layers set to “transparent”

The ability to view layer by layer has allowed me to see design details with ease that I’d previously struggled to see, or missed entirely, I have been using it to review designs for over a year and it has helped me find design errors or manufacturing problems before ever fabricating a board.

#Brd file viewer software#

ZofzPCB 3D Gerber viewing software is a great tool for viewing a realistic virtual image of a completed printed wiring board (PWB). Is not only currently useful, but going in the right direction to be the link that is currently missing between the vast number of PCB, That a software designer does not have experiance of, so I am happy to come along for the ride, as the software Giving feedback does get features added that real world designers would use, There are plans to create files in the native M-CAD format of the 'Pro' packages,īeing a Beta tester does have its benefits. Of course a PCB looks better with components fitted, which is the current stage of development of ZofzPCB.Īs a Beta tester I have sent the author component models I have created and use along with links to libraries available on the web.īut this is not where it ends. Model files to customers for them to include in there installation CAD files. Having a 'real' looking PCB before it is manufactured, means I can render an image in its indended enclosure and send Render a PCB in real world graphics, that the colours are true to life, and I do/have used a few in my 40 years as a PCB designer.

#Brd file viewer free#

ZofzPCB, as the 3D Gerber viewer is known by, is the first free to use software package I have come accross that can After a chance reading of an article in theĮlectronics Weekly magazine on 22nd October 2014 of a 3D Gerber viewer, I decided to investigate further, as being a CAD/CAM centred design engineer,ĭiscovering a new approach to visualising data is always welcome.Īt what was then, an early stage of development, it was well advanced enough to be useable, not just as a viewerīut also in my case to generate real world graphics files, I need as an intermediate stage between E-CAD and M-CAD.