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Release Notes for gerbv-2.2.0
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The following is a summary off the changes which went into gerbv-2.2.0.
For a complete list of changes, refer to ChangeLog.
- libgerbv: fixed a bug in the min/max calculation.
- libgerbv: improved the ability to parse drill files with
user specified formats.
- libgerbv: Compile with -no-undefined to make it easier to build
windows DLL's.
- configure: Improve detection of tools when cross-compiling.
- libgerbv: Improved example programs.
- gerbv: Changed desktop categories to be more consistent with
the rest of gEDA.
- common: Fixed compilation with SunPRO compilers
- libgerbv: Fixed calculation of pick and place bounding box
- gerbv: Added a rendering benchmark
- gerbv: Various rendering speed improvements
- common: Made an install be relocatable. This is always needed
for proper win32 operation and helps in some cases
on other operating systems. As part of this, improve
how init.scm is located at startup.
- gerbv: Improved the project file load/save dialog.
* Added ability to select objects, with the option of deleting or viewing
basic properties of the objects
* Split off the core functionality of gerbv into a library (libgerbv) to
allow developers to quickly write software using Gerber
parsing/editing/exporting/rendering functionality. Full DOxygen
documentation has also been created to facilitate developers wishing to use
libgerbv.
* Added export to RS274X and Excellon functionality, allowing gerbv to
translate files between formats. The RS274X export function can also be
used to "clean" troublesome files to a more compatible format.
* Added the ability to override the Excellon format "guessing", allowing
non-standard drill files to be correctly rendered
* Greatly expanded the command line functionality, including the ability to
panelize boards into a single one through the command line
* Added "Aperture usage" tab to Gerber reports. This allows the user to
see how often each aperture is used in all visible layers of his project.
Several notable bugs were squished in release 2.1.0:
* Fixed bug when exporting several layers to SVG/PDF/PS, which caused
corrupted output and/or crashes
* Fixed several Windows-only problems related to parsing and rendering
* Fixed rendering bug when using polygon objects within step and repeat
blocks
* Improved RS-274X export output format to work with certain Gerber viewing
software
Many updates including
- 100% of RS274-X is now supported
- cairo rendering which among other things gives printing to a printer, pdf,
png, ps, or svg.
- gnome/kde desktop integration
- added a regression test suite
- lots of rework of the gui.
All in all this is a major overhaul.
This release represents a point release incorporating a few patches made
against the 1.0.X source over the last 1 1/2 years. Specific updates
include:
* Incorporate changes from Joost Witteveen to support extended
%SR% commands.
* Fix endless loop bug when gerbv encountered an unknown
% code. Patch from Joost Witteveen.
* Fixed initial scale setting for %MOMM% Gerber files.
Patch from Joost Witteveen.
* Fixed format for small drillfiles. Patch from Trevor Blackwell.
* Fix setting of the initial window size when the screen
is larger than the display. Patch from David Carr.
additions/changes since gerbv-0.15:
* projects: you can save and load setups in what I call projects.
* GTK+ 2 support
* Now you can invert a layer by the push of button. Basically.
* When gerber files were defined with omit trailing zeros, gerbv could
parse them very bad. Now it should work better.
* Aperture macros did not handle exposures at all. Now they do a better
work. Some thermals are defined from their CAD program as a sequence of
aperture macros instead of just using aperture macro 7. They are drawn
better now.
* Handles tool tables when drawing drill files thanks to Dimitri. See man
page for more info.
* You cannot compile with backend anymore, switch is removed. In last
release this caused compilation error due to bit rot.
* Drawing of arcs is a constant headache. Mark Whitis found another
case that I had missed out. Clockwise arcs all of a sudden started
to be drawn as counter-clockwise.
* Arcs with very small angle differences could either be a complete
circle or a very small part of an arc. Calculating the angles with
integers wasn't sufficient, anyhow. They are now doubles all the way.
* Aperture macro primitive 1 was a _filled_ circle.
* Image rotate used to cause warnings that it wasn't implemented. Now
if the file has an image rotate on zero degrees there is no warning
(yes I've seen it).
* Dan McMahill discovered that if you tried to swap with an unused layer
gerbv segfaulted.
* Peter Monta submitted patch for incremental coordinates.
* No traces of Guile left...
changes since 0.0.5:
- Turn on and off explicit layers.
- Color on button reflect color on layer.
- Automatic detection of drill- or gerber file.
- Tooltips over buttons to reflect loaded filename.
- Handles Polygon Area Fill
- Major rehacking of file IO and pan code to significantly
increase speed.
- Autoscaling. Loaded gerber files are automagically scaled and
panned to fit in window. Also possible to do with loaded files
with Zoom/Fit meny option.
- configure.in enhancement to support package building in Red Hat.
Thanks to Wojciech Kazubski for patch.
- bzero changed to memset, which hopefully is more POSIX (for portability).
- Loads of bugs squashed and hopefully fewer added.
Gerber Viewer (gerbv) is a viewer for Gerber files. Gerber files
are generated from PCB CAD system and sent to PCB manufacturers
as basis for the manufacturing process.
The different layers of the PCB are separated into different files.
gerbv can load all files at the same time, though it can not show
them at the same time. You have to browse through the different layers
with the radio buttons on the right side.
