Gerber output from orcad to protel

[weeyndha]

Hi All,

How to create gerber output from Orcad that can be read (compatible) with Protel 99SE

Regards, Weeyndha

 

[Phil woz ere]

You need to create your gerger files using 274X format so that protel
knows what the aperture sizes are

Phil

 

[weeyndha]

Hi Phil,

Other than 274X format, what parameters should I set ?

Wheeyndha

 

[Phil woz ere]

protel can read in metric or imperial, use something like the below.

metric
4:3
absolute
no zero suppression.

These should be OK.

Phil

 

[ME]

If you use Protel DXP you can import directly from OrCAD. No need for gerber files.

 

[banupriya]

Dear Sir/Madam,
I am Banu. I need the some details about the orcad Design Tool.
I have the GERBTOOL in orcad10.5.
I want to do a reverse engineering task. I have gerber data (top, bot,drldwg, smt,ssb)of a 2 layer board. There is no other data like max file,schematic or netlist available.
I want to create the max file from the gerber data. what is the process (step by step ) to do that.
From this forum I could knew it is possible, I am also go through the gerbertool usermanual. Still I am not clear how to do it. (how to get footprint information & connection verification). From the gerber data it seems board has copper pour and all ThroughHole components placed in Bottom layer.
Please explain to me , if anybody has done it successfully.


Thanks and Regards,
Banu.

 

[NIKHILRAJ]

is it really possible to create a PCB from gerber files in a single click.
I think gerber files you can import into your PCB tool and can use for referance purpose only.

 

[luben111]

The Gerber format is text format and is quite simple for decoding so we can very easy create an image of the design in the computer memory. Once we have this image we can save it in other formats - like MAX or PCBDOC (Altium). For sure this will require good skills in PC programming. Personally I made some time ago software which is saving the generated patterns into Gerber, DXF, PLT and PCBDOC formats and it works well.

But if you simply want to convert the gerbers into Protel PCB files you should use the import features of the software. As I rerember you should first convert the Gerbers to DXF (in the Protel's Camstartic) and then DXF can be imported in any PCB software (ORCAD, Altium, PCad, etc.). In short the path is Gerbers -> DXF -> PCB_Files

 

[tantudaisu]

Hi,

I think it is possible to convert GERB files to DXF, and then to any layout format, but after conversion you will get whole pcb like one object with no possibility to move parts, reroute tracks and so on... If you ungroup this object you will get thousands of primitives with no profit.

It is not possible to get fully-fledged PCB files.

- tantudaisu -