kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Matthew Beckler <matthew@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Richard,

I know some users of KiCad prefer to use the gerbv program from the gEDA
package, and I'm not sure how much effort has been put into gerbview in
recent years. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

For my own production needs, my board houses have always been more than
happy to take my gerber files for just one copy of the design, and
handle the panelization themselves, and mail me a stack of as many
boards as I want. I've done this for orders of 2500+ individual PCBs, so
that might be an option for your production needs.

I suppose if you want to get the whole finished panels back (instead of
individual boards) for something like automated assembly, or need
control over the details of panelization, then it makes sense to do the
panelization yourself. I haven't ever done anything like that, but let
us know if you find some good software for it! I'm sure other folks on
this list have experience with self-panelization.

Good luck!

-Matthew Beckler
Wayne and Layne, LLC

On 06/26/2012 03:47 PM, Richard wrote:
> Hi to all
> 
> I am new to KiCad as also to the developer community. I have designed
> two boards with KiCad and sent the data to china just a few minutes ago.
> In a first step I only sent the gerber files for a single board
> (Prototype for test). But as I need big quantities, I need a
> panelization software.
> I tried to download and install the GerbMerg. But I was not able to
> install it either on my Ubuntu computer nor on a Windows laptop, what
> made me frustrated as I spent hours trying everything to get it up and
> running.
> 
> So I thought, it could be a realizable job to do that in GerbView.
> Can anybody tell me if that is an idea or is that not of interest. Who
> is responsible for GerbView. Is there something like a quick start guide
> on what has been done up to now.
> I have written some programs in Java so I know a little on OOP.
> I have written a panelisation software years ago on a DOS machine in C
> but I am not sure if I will find that part of software on my backups as
> it may be gone!!?? I then used that software for my photoplotter when I
> was producing films for PCB manufacturers.
> 
> Please tell me if that is a very silly Idea or if it would be worth to
> sit down for  some hours.
> 
> Regards
> Richard
> 
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