May you guys can give me some clues about my chalenge.
I have a gerber file, and I would like to create a new layer containing only all components from the bottom and top side of the board (removing vias, testpoints eg). I need send to my team a very clean gerber, to be used for specific purpose.
If I have a list with all devices centroid, can I automatically perform some task to do it in a easy way? I have google it and I have found something about Kibot tool, but I’m not sure if can be useful for me in this gerber level.
I don’t think there is a direct way but try the following:
Make a copy of your board file (!)
In the Layer Manager, set all layers visible, switch to ‘Items’ and deselect ‘Footprints Front’ and ‘Footprints Back’.
Draw a window over all and delete it. Set Footprints visible again and make your Gerber.
I appreciate your answer. My gerber is only a mechanical reference, and there is no such footprint options to select. I think before I execute this step, I should refer some decode to footprint? I mean, for example, de decode D78 is a footprint for onde device. Is there a way to mark this decode, or attribute, to be visible as footprint?
As far as I know, there are no references to footprints in gerber files. No component centroids either.
Import the relevant gerber to new pcb and start manually adding components (footprints).
I’m afraid I missunderstood the problem. The footprint-trick would only work if you had a KiCad PCB File. As you have only a Gerber file where’s no information about footprints I don’t see a simple automatic way. I’m afraid I don’t have a solution for you. Sorry for that.
It has the centroid and pin 1 position for each component. The file can’t be exported from v5.1 but can be viewed with gerbview v5.1. It’s just standard gerber X2 and has component position outline, centroid as a circle and pin 1 as a diamond.
