Convert Legacy Gerber to Extended Gerber
Convert RS-274D to RS-274X
GerbView can convert all your older Gerber files to the new extended Gerber format, also known as RS-274X and Gerber X1.
For this conversion to work successfully you can do the following steps:
Step 1 - Setup input Gerber file format:
Older Gerber files do not include any information regarding units, apertures or coordinates.
Because of this the first thing you will have to do, is to make sure that the Gerber format settings are correct.
Open the Application Options dialog found under the Settings tab and locate the Gerber section, under the Formats category.
Here you can set the units (metric or inches), whether the coordinates are absolute or incremental, number digits and how zeros are to be treated.
All this information should be available from the system that created the Gerber files, usually in a text file.
Below is a picture of this dialog with the default Gerber format settings:
Sometimes Gerber files are loaded at only one-tenth of the actual PCB size.
If this happens, change the Decimal Digits setting from 4 to 3.
This is because your files use 1/1000-inch coordinates (also known as mils), not the default 1/10000-inch.
After making this change, make sure to reload your Gerber files for it to take effect.
Step 2 - Add the required layers:
After you've checked that the format settings are correct you can now load all the Gerber layers by using the Add Layer command which is found under the Home tab:
The next thing you have to do after loading all the layers, is to load the aperture table using the Load command found under the Gerber & Drill tab, if GerbView didn't already ask to you to load one.
GerbView do support most known aperture file formats, but if GerbView cannot load the file you have, you will need to manually set the aperture values.
Open the aperture editor using the Edit command found under the Gerber & Drill tab and do the necessary changes.
If you have an aperture file format that GerbView do not understand, you're welcome to send us this file so we can add support for that format.
When all the required layers and an aperture file have been loaded (or you manually edited the apertures), you should now visually check that everything looks ok:
Step 3 - Convert to Extended Gerber (RS-274X):
Now we can perform the actual conversion to the extended Gerber format.
Go to the Conversion tab and click the Save As RS-274X Multi-file button.
A dialog will appear where you can select the layers (or files) you want to convert.
Next, choose an output folder for the converted files.
If you prefer, you can click Use Source File Folder to save the converted files in the same location as the originals.
⚠️ Important: If you use the Use Source File Folder option, make sure to specify a different file extension for the converted files. Otherwise, the original files may be overwritten.
When you're satisfied with the settings press Start and the new extended Gerber files will be created in the selected output folder.
