PCB Assembly Tools
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Eagle Light Freeware
Eagle Light PCB Design software. Free for personal or educational use. CadSoft CadSoft Eagle Light

Intrusive Reflow Calculator
Here's an Excel-sheet made by Ioan Tempea of Positron Technologies to help optimize the parameters that determine hole-fill at pin-in-paste soldering. Intrusive Reflow Calculator
GoldenSection Notes
An easy-to-use notebook designed for storing various textual and graphical information in a clear tree-structured form. The program is now shareware, but here on www.smtinfo.net you can still download the original freeware version. GoldenSection Homepage GoldenSection Notes

XnView
Image viewer and convertor that supports more than 400 file-formats. XnfanView Homepage XnView

Waterfall
A 118 kB utility that effectively cools down your processor for longer CPU-life and lower power consumption. Waterfall

Geometry
Caculator to easily calculate the volume and surface area of common geometric figures. Filesize 596 KB. Geometry Geometry 2.6.2

PathCopy
Shell extension that enables to copy the path of a file or directory to the clipboard. It's one of the few utilities that I use constantly. Filesize 40 KB. NinoTech Software PathCopy 4.0

NoteTab Light
A great replacement for Notepad. One of the many features: this software can be used as a Paste Board to save textclips automatically! NoteTab Light website NoteTab Light download

ZipGenius
ZipGenius is a powerful zip tool suite that offers a variety of features. It offers support for more than 20 different compression formats, including 7zip, ZIP64 and many others. ZipGenius Homepage ZipGenius Suite

MWSnap
MWSnap is a small yet powerful Windows program for snapping (capturing) images from selected parts of the screen. Mirek's Free Windows Software MWSnap

Multires
Quick screen-resolution changer + acces to display settings. Filesize: 99 KB Entechtaiwan Multires

Calc98
Very powerfull multi-purpose calculator, complete with unit-conversion module and periodic table of elemenst The Calculator Home Page Calc98 Download Page

4t Tray Minimizer
4t Tray Minimizer lets you run applications minimized as System Tray icons, clearing up space on your desktop and taskbar. 4t-Niagara Software 4t Tray Minimizer

CutePDF Printer
Free program to generate PDF files from every Windows-program that has the ability to print. Very simple. Unlike the version from the official site, www.smtinfo.net has an earlier version for which a separate installation of Ghostscripts isn't needed.. Acro Software CutePDF Printer

TEK Unit Convertor
Another nice program for unit conversion. Only 133 KB. Tek Unit Convertor 3.11
Other Recommended Software
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Crypt Edit
Crypt Edit is a freeware Word processor, with many functions. PolySoft Crypt Edit download

Smartworks-PE 2.0
SmartWorks Project Planner is software, which helps to plan, manage and Track a project. It provides the flexibility to split a project into well-defined tasks in a spreadsheet like interface. This software allows a project manager to define calendar, create dependencies between tasks, mark milestones, assign resources, set priorities, maintain risk database, track cost, view Gantt charts and resource usage graphs and more. Smartworks Smartworks Personal Edition

Geiss Sreensaver
The most beautifull screensaver on earth, packed in only 94 kB. Responds to sound. Geisswerks Geiss 4.24

FelixCAD LT
Powerful 2D CAD program that's works with existing DWG and DXF designs. Felix Computer Aided Technologies FelixCAD LT

QMSPC
SPC software, developed by the US Air Force. It may look a bit outdated (DOS-based), but it's not. Contains full tutorial. Filesize: 553 KB QMSPC

Production Planning Project
Free software developed to assist supervisors with the daily production planning effort. The software can calculate manpower requirements and operation completions and estimate time standards from historical data. See this page for a description. Computer-Aided Production Planning Production Planning Project
NetBSD. It is available from the NetBSD ports tree (thanks Dan McMahill).
FreeBSD, in their cad ports tree.
An ebuild script from Michael Ihde for Gentoo Linux (it is now actually a steady member of the Gentoo package list).
Charles Lepple has compiled the gEDA suite to MacOS X using fink. Here is how he did it.
Peter Ljungberg reports that he has managed to compile gerbv, including the "save to PNG" option, to VMS.
System Requirements
gerbv is dependent on a couple of different external libraries:
GTK+, the graphical toolkit (required).
GDK-Pixbuf, export of images (optional).
libpng, needed by GDK-Pixbuf to generate PNGs (optional).
getopt_long from the GNU project. gerbv can do without getopt_long long options to the program will hence not be available (optional).
Cairo, the graphics library (optional).
Earlier gerbv was known to use Guile. Since release 0.0.9 this has been removed. The batch feature and Guile support is removed.
gerbv is known to compile on all system which the above mentioned libraries compile on, basically all flavors of *ix. It has been tested on:
Linux (2.2/2.4/2.6)
NetBSD/i386 (1.4.1) (getopt_long not available)
NetBSD/Alpha (1.5.1)
Solaris (5.7 and 5.8) (getopt_long not available)
Support
An attempt to gather information on different CAD-programs and how to use them with gerbv:
Cadsoft's Eagle doesn't generate Excellon/drill files that gerbv likes. Here's how to solve it with a Perl script.
Update 2004-09-07 This is not true with later releases of Eagle. Uwe Bonnes reports that since about release 4.11r12 (2004-03-15) things seems to have been implemented properly.
To convert an RS274D with an external aperture list to an RS274X Larry Doolittle described a short perl script in an email. Ormund Williams tried to use it, but had to do some slight modifications to make it work for him.
Competition?
This is a list of programs for *ix that can view and manipulate Gerber files:
Gerber2eps. Generates Encapsulated PostScript from Gerber files.
gerb2tif. Generated TIFF from Gerber files. Also includes a win32 binary for the interested (new URL 20031231).
Gerber RS-274D/X file viewer in Java. Doesn't seem to work too well. Maybe a start if someone likes to hack Java.
gerber2pdf. A Python script that converts a gerber file 2 pdf. Seems quite advanced.
GBTiler. Not actually a viewer, but a panelizer as I understand it. Takes several gerber files and puts them together next to each other. Written in Perl.
GerbMerge is also a panelizer, but written in Python.
Is there going to be windows version?
The reason I started this project was the lack of Gerber viewers for Linux. But now Juergen Haas has actually made a port of gerbv that is available here. Please note that this is a beta and there might be quirks and problems, but it is useable.
I have actually got several indications that the regular Windows Gerber viewers are actually too complicated to use. So this might be an alternative for you to try out if you find the other programs too complicated to use.

If you don't like gerbv there is a list of gerber viewers here. They are free as in free beer.

License
gerbv and all associated files is placed under the GNU Public License (GPL) version 2.0. See the toplevel COPYING file for more information.
Programs and associated files are:
Copyright ? 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 by Stefan Petersen and the respective original authors (which are listed in respective files).

Status
What's there:
Parses (and draws of course) a lot of Gerbers, including aperture macros.
Drill file support(NC drill/Excellon).
Pick-and-place file support (.csv format).
Autodetection of Gerber, drill, or pick-place file type upon readin.
Panning and zooming (both stepwise and outline).
Autoscale. Zoom and pan to fit window.
Several files can be loaded and be shown "on top of each other".
Different files have different colors.
Explicit setting of color on layer.
Acknowledge layer polarity (paint/scratch/paint).
A measurement tool so you can make measurements on the image.
Export image to PNG, .ps, .pdf, .svg (cairo version only).
Complex layer operations (e.g. knockout).
Possible to reload files which reloads all loaded files. Good when hacking Gerber files.
Project files where you can store the names of a set of loaded files and color of resp. layer so you easily can reload all Gerber files of a project.
What is missing:
Proper documentation at all except a very good man page.
Also have a look at gerbv's feature request database.
Not much else.....
Install
By downloading a release
Download tarballs from here.
Expand source by running gzip -dc <filename> | tar xf -
Change to newly expanded directory
Type ./configure <switches>.
The following (gerbv) switches are available to configure:
--help: Lists all configure options.
--enable-debug: Program will output lots of debug spew while running. (default = no -> no debug output by default.)
--disable-exportpng: Disable compilation of export of PNGs. (default = no -> exportpng on by default.)
--enable-unit-mm: Set default unit for coordinates in status bar to mm (default = no -> units = inches by default.)
--disable-cairo: Use GDK only for graphics rendering. (default = no -> both GDK and cairo used by default.)
--enable-efence: Link with ElectricFence for malloc debugging (default = no -> efence off by default.)
--disable-update-desktop-database: Update desktop icon database after installation (default = no -> desktop icon installed by default.)
Type make
Type make install. Please note that if you want to install it in a system directory you have to su first.
Test by typing gerbv
By using anonymous CVS
Login on anonymous CVS (only needed the first time):
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@gerbv.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/gerbv login .
Press Enter when CVS asks for a password.
Check out the source tree:
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@gerbv.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/gerbv co gerbv
Recreate all build system files:
aclocal
autoheader
automake --copy --add-missing
autoconf
I have also made a simple script which is called with ./rebuild_conf which does all the auto* stuff.
Type ./configure <switches>.
The following (gerbv) switches are available to configure:
--help: Lists all configure options.
--enable-debug: Program will output lots of debug spew while running. (default = no -> no debug output by default.) open shutter from one coordinate to another to generate line or circular arc segments.
Mechanical Gerber plotters used apertures made of photographic film, where the transparent portion could be any shape. Flash apertures in custom shapes were used for surface mount pads or edge connector pads or targets to align the layers. If a circle was used to draw a line, the middle of the line would be exposed to more light than the edges, so a Draw aperture was typically a doughnut shape with the center dark for uniform coverage. This is no longer necessary with raster plotters.
There was no uniform position for the film apertures, so an aperture list (plain text) was used to inform the operator where to install the apertures before running the plot. The machine had a certain number of available aperture position numbers that were not consecutive 1..max, and usually not all were used for any given board plot. The person generating the plot file had responsibility to ensure that the aperture list used positions that were actually available and matched the plot file.
In 1986 the GERBER Format was extended to support apertures with variable sizes to produce rectangles of arbitrary sizes within a given range and tapered lines. This functionality is not in practical use any more.
On 1991-04-26 with the availability of raster-scan capability the GERBER Format was then again extended for polygon areas and Extended Mass Parameter, allowing to dynamically define apertures of different shape and sized and more.
The last edition of the GERBER FORMAT, Plot Data Format Reference Book was published on 1993-01-31 by Gerber Systems Corporation.
Later the Gerber Systems Corporation joined with Barco Graphics, Gent, Belgium, and on 1998-09-21 the RS-274X Format User’s Guide was published by the Barco Gerber Systems Corporation.
Again sometime later the rights on the specification turned over to ManiaBarco GmbH, Germany
On 2003-01-01 ManiaBarco GmbH, Germany was taken over by MANIA Technologie AG, Germany. Since then no "official" public documentation on the GERBER Format is any longer available.
Today, the Gerber Scientific Instruments Company, a pioneer in photoplotter manufacturing, and a former division of Gerber Scientific, Inc. is no longer in the business of photoplotter for printed circuit board
Around the year 1990 the GERBER Format was adopted by several other photoplotter vendors and also Computer-aided manufacturing tools for PCBs. It became a de-facto standard even if no official documentation is any longer available.

[edit] Usage of the GERBER Format
These files are produced by PCB designers using specialized Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software, such as OrCAD Layout, Altium Designer, Mentor Expedition, Cadence Allegro, CadSoft EAGLE, TARGET 3001!, Sunstone PCB123, Number One System Easy-PC, Zuken Cadstar or Zuken CR5000.

Since a PCB may have many layers, the older Gerber format EIA RS-274D always assumed a set of command files (one for each PCB layer) and one "tool" description file. The command files (consisting of short commands and X, Y coordinates) were called "Gerber files" and the tool files were called "aperture files". A standard for the latter was never established so every EDA software had its own file format which caused problems for the manufacturers. Often the aperture information had to be re-entered manually.

The newer Gerber format RS-274X, also known as X-Gerber or Extended Gerber, includes the aperture information into the file headers. With embedded apertures, this makes every X-Gerber file complete as to how each PCB layer should look. However, there are still problems with the interpretation of these files, such as on polygons, or the question of which file to use for which layer. Gerber file extensions are often .GBR, .GBX, .PHD, .SPL or .ART. Sometimes extensions such as .TOP and .BOT are used instead.

Some common XGerber extensions are:

.GBL - Gerber Bottom Layer
.GTL - Gerber Top Layer
.GBS - Gerber Bottom Solder Resist
.GTS - Gerber Top Solder Resist
.GBO - Gerber Bottom Overlay
.GTO - Gerber Top Overlay
.GBP - Gerber Bottom Paste
.GTP - Gerber Top Paste
.GKO - Gerber Keep-Out Layer
.GM1 - Gerber Mechanical 1
.GM2 - Gerber Mechanical 2
.GPT - Gerber Top Pad Master
.GPB - Gerber Bottom Pad Master

[edit] Alternatives
Over the years there have been several attempts to replace Gerber by more powerful or more consistent formats. But none of these have (yet) been able to replace the dominance of Gerber:

IPC-D-350 C Printed Board Description in Digital Format', 1989. This specification was standardized as IEC 61128 in 1992 and withdrawn in 2001
Dynamic Process Format, DPF Format Description, Version 5, 1998, Barco Graphics
The Electronic Design Interchange Format, EDIF
ODB++ from Valor Computerized Systems Ltd, Israel
GenCAM: IPC-2511A Generic Requirements for Implementation of Product Manufacturing Description Data and Transfer Methodology, 2000
GenCAM: IPC-2511B Generic Requirements for Implementation of Product Manufacturing Description Data and Transfer XML Schema Methodology, 2002
Offspring: IPC-2581 Generic Requirements for Printed Board Assembly Products Manufacturing Description Data and Transfer Methodology, 2004
STEP AP210: ISO 10303-210, Electronic assembly interconnect and packaging design, first edition 2001, second edition 2008 (to be published)

[edit] See also
G-code
GDS II stream format
Computer Aids for VLSI Design - Appendix A: Gerber Format by Steven M. Rubin CURRENT VERSION 8.3 Now with drill drawing creation and updates to silkscreen identification and DFM autofixing News
CADAES

CadSoft w/ the Eagle layout editor

Capilano Computing, quality, low-cost ECAD, free demo software (fully functional "lite" version)

CAI TRAINING RESOURCES

CIRCAD design software

Circuit Magic circuit design and analysis

Micro Nation Software makers of CircSolver

CSiEDA Analog & Digital Circuit/PCB design Conversion Factors Inc. Netlist, Schematic, and PC Board translation tools

Data I/O, makers of Synario PLD design & simulation software

Design/Analysis Consultants, Inc. makers of Design Master software

Douglas CAD/CAM, System for Macintosh PCB Design

DSP Design gives you 38 Freely Usable Digital Filter Design Applets (Java) DSP Development , graphical data analysis software

ExpressPCB , Free PCB layout editor for Win95 & low cost PC board manufacture

EZ-ROUTE2000 integrated CAE software - Draw your schematic, load into the board editor, place footprints and add traces or use the autorouter. Print, plot or photoplot your board.

Hyperception, DSP software for real-time and simulation dsp and EE applications

Intusoft , makers of ICAP/4Windows
Maple

Matlab

MathSoft , (producers of Mathcad)

McCAD EDA Software

MicroTec, 2D semiconductor Process and Device Simulator for Windows

Protel Schematic & PCB design

Router Solutions, Inc. , (provider for translator tools of CAE/CAD/CAM interface programs)

Sage EDA Corporation, PCB design software for Windows and MacOS

Schematica Software, makers of Filter Wiz

Siborg Systems Inc. , makers of MicroTec-3.02 for Windows: 2D Semiconductor Process/Device Simulator

The Small Device C Compiler (Freeware 8051, Z80, AVR cross compiler for Linux)

SwitchMin, boolean-expression to logic schematic converter

Technical Data Systems, technical database with specs for more than 70,000 electronic components

Trilogy Design , makers of Parts&Vendors personal parts list manager ,

TurboSim? , (circuit simulation tool)

Niche Software
PCB Designer is a Microsoft Windows application that enables you to design masks
for printed circuit boards. Widely recognised as being very easy to use. ...

Merlin PCB Designer
A shareware package using CorelDRAW as a printed circuit board (PCB) layout program.

CadSoft Online: Home of the EAGLE Layout Editor
CadSoft offers user friendly, powerful and affordable solutions for PCB design,
including Schematic Capture, Board Layout, and Autorouter. ...

PCB design tools
PCB DESIGNER Low cost PCB CAD software. You can download limited demo version.
... Schematic design and PCB routing software. You can download free copy ...

Cadence Design Systems
Orcad electronic design automation (eda) software tools, fpga and pcb system design.

pcb-designer.com



ePanorama PCB CAD Schematic editor and design packages Viewer software Conversion utilities Programmable logic software Electronics circuit design and analysis ...


Electronic Software Merlin PCB Designer , a free shareware package to route printed circuit boards using ... Sage EDA Corporation, PCB design software for Windows and MacOS ...

OrCAD PCB Designer with PSpice
Scalable, cost-effective PCB design suite includes OrCAD Capture, PCB Editor,
PSpice and SPECCTRA. Gerber Manufacturing Ltd
Get Free Quote / Samples / Send RFQ Start Here: Select a Product...BENCHESBENCHES: AluminumBENCHES: SeatingBENCHES: SteelBICYCLE RACKSFRAMING: SteelFURNITURE: Camp, MetalFURNITURE: Camp, WoodFURNITURE: InstitutionalFURNITURE: Lawn, Garden, Outdoor, PatioFURNITURE: WoodPLAYGROUND EQUIPMENTRACKS: BicycleSPORTING GOODSTABLESTABLES: GameTABLES: Picnic Contact This Company

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2917 Latham Dr
Madison, WI , 53713-3232
Phone: 608-271-2777
FAX: 608-271-1920
Website: www.gerbertables.com
Business Activity: Manufacturer

Products Description:
Manufactures Metal Household Furn Manufactures Wood Household Furn Manufactures Sport/Athletic Goods Manufactures Public Building Furn Playground bleachers, Wall climbing equipment, Rope climbing equipment

Get Free Quote / Samples / Send RFQ Start Here: Select a Product...BENCHESBENCHES: AluminumBENCHES: SeatingBENCHES: SteelBICYCLE RACKSFRAMING: SteelFURNITURE: Camp, MetalFURNITURE: Camp, WoodFURNITURE: InstitutionalFURNITURE: Lawn, Garden, Outdoor, PatioFURNITURE:
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List of Products for Gerber Manufacturing Ltd serving Wisconsin WI (17 total)

BENCHES - serving Wisconsin WI
BENCHES: Aluminum - serving Wisconsin WI
BENCHES: Seating - serving Wisconsin WI
BENCHES: Steel - serving Wisconsin WI
BICYCLE RACKS - serving Wisconsin WI
FRAMING: Steel - serving Wisconsin WI
FURNITURE: Camp, Metal - serving Wisconsin WI
FURNITURE: Camp, Wood - serving Wisconsin WI
FURNITURE: Institutional - serving Wisconsin WI FURNITURE: Lawn, Garden, Outdoor, Patio - serving Wisconsin WI
FURNITURE: Wood - serving Wisconsin WI
PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT - serving Wisconsin WI
RACKS: Bicycle - serving Wisconsin WI
SPORTING GOODS - serving Wisconsin WI
TABLES - serving Wisconsin WI
TABLES: Game - serving Wisconsin WI
TABLES: Picnic - serving Wisconsin WI
We Specialize in Small Quantities
Turn-times as quick as 3 days for Fab thru Assembly
PCB layer count 0 to 14 layers
Lead-Free (RoHs compliant) SMT assembly available
Multiple plating finishes including HAL, ENIG, and Immersion Silver
Choice of laminates including high temp (tg) UL certified