@Sonophoto Yes,we want to do this with software or code on our website when our customers upload file (usually is gerber). Excited to hear you can do that,please send mail to me anson at pcbway.com
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Everything you described above seemed to indicate you want this piece of software to run on kicad data.
Your last response would contradict that. Now it seems like you want a full gerber checker. (Makes me wonder if you even have well defined specifications in mind or if you just wing it.)
I doubt that kicad is really the right tool to do full on gerber checks. (Gerber import is quite limited) Maybe an interface to your currently used toolset might be better. (Use the same tool for both production and billing as otherwise you might get contradictions.)
I would allow a little leeway for translation issues 
I think he probably meant that most/all customers currently submit gerbers, but they would like to add support for KiCad files.
I guess OSHPark developed scripts to import KiCad files, but I also guess manufacturers are unlikely to shared their code (competitive advantage).
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@ bobc @ Rene_Poschl I am sorry for my poor English to make misunderstanding. For Chinese PCB manufacturer,the engineers need to check gerber file and then arrange production.
So we want to get parameters from gerber file. Mr.Wayne Stambaugh said it can be achieved by Kicad function.
What do you mean with āparameters from gerber fileā?
If you want to check on the gerber level then you need to use a gerber checker. There are no file parameters that you can read out that will guarantee that clearances and min width settings are met. I am not aware that KiCad can run a DRC on gerbers directly. (I might be wrong about that part.)
The need to run checks also applies with a KiCad project. Nobody can guarantee that the user did not set āignore DRC violationsā for the project at some time. Copper zones might not have been updated before submitting the board file to you.
This means that reading out the users DRC settings does not give you any information about the state of the PCB. You really need to run the full DRC with your specifications on the project to get a result on it. Meaning the workflow for user supplied KiCad projects would be:
- Open the KiCad pcb_new file
- Setup DRC settings of pcb_new according to your specifications
- Run the DRC and report any errors to the user.
- If no error is found: Generate gerbers with the settings used for your chinese fab. (Start the plot dialog)
Iām a little puzzled here, by exactly how you want this to operate ?
" Now we want to upgrade our service which can help us get the file parameters directly ( the size,the Min Track width,the min Spacing, Min Hole Size ,usually gerber format ) when our clients upload their files.
That is not a KiCad data parser problem, but a Gerber/Excellon problem.
It seems a simple and worthwhile report set, to add to GerbView ?
Min Track width and Min Hole size should pop out in a few lines of code, during the files-load.
Size seems to be known, as it Auto-Centres already, so just needs to report those.
That leaves Extract Min Spacing as a more difficult GerbView general problem, as well as how to manage file-type split.
The ideal Web-Vendor Automated-Website would do something like
- grab users (KiCad created, Gerber set ) Zip file, save to path/quote1746372
- run (imaginary) command gerbview.exe -dir path/quote1746372 -r Reportname.xml/xls/csv
- read generated report
- apply min.max checks and calculate quote, include report in quote to customer
- loop
GerbView does big chunks of that now, it seems to quite nicely swallow whole sets of Drill/gerber & autoscale.
I see it also correctly loads/renders KiCad slots, so can report those too.
Finer details like file sorting (eg split silk-screen-set from copper-set, cannot guarantee by name ) might be nice if get false errors from Silkscreen of tracewidth & certainly clearance pass ? )ā
Maybe a silk in filename is enough ?
Looks like the only listed item of min Spacing, is special software, but thatās a tough ask from scattered Gerber data, and maybe a Clearance == MinWidth ārough ruleā is enough to assume from scanned data ?
Worthwhile, sure. But simple?
All that can be checked reliably from gerbers is minimum width of copper and minimum spacing between isolated copper areas. Gerber doesnāt have knowledge of pads, tracks, zones or nets. It has graphical features which can be interpreted in different ways as far as pcb design goes. It doesnāt even have knowledge of continuing copper from one layer to another; it has to be calculated by using drilling information. Also it canāt know when manufacturerās minimum spacing or width doesnāt matter, for example with copper text inside copper fill. So manual checking is necessary anyways.
This task needs much better and exact requirement list for functionality. Whoever implements it probably needs knowledge of gerber format. I donāt think this is a simple task unless all which is needed is checking for minimum spacing between isolated copper areas and minimum width of copper. Everything which involves pads, tracks, nets etc. is either more difficult or impossible. And I donāt have any idea about whether KiCad already have functions for calculating minimum spacing or width for gerbers, and even less idea about how they could be implemented if they donāt exist. Maybe the real KiCad developers have some idea about that.
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See my last paragraph qualifier.
Iām less sure about your āchecked reliably from gerbers is minimum spacing between isolated copper areasā, claim, hence my qualifier already above.
Seems the quality resulting / code effort ratio is not worth it, hence my related question.
eg A very short trace segment is graphically legal, but could trigger a false virtex-virtex (Minimum above 0) check.
Yes Gerber limits Size, the Min Track width, Min Hole Size ( Iād add Max Hole Size too)
can be extracted in one pass, and Gerbview already has all the numbers flying past.
That type of scan-for-limits, is not complex code and is fairly common.
There is no ācalculatingā, more a simple if compare
if MinVal > ThisNewVal then
MinVal = ThisNewValM
MinVal starts at some (silly) BIG value, and hops down to the smallest new value
Routed edge slot length quoting (if done?) is not going to be easy to any-file-set-automate, but if GerbView also reported a simple table of the minW-maxW-SigmaL for each file, the user could specify a FileName containing their routing cuts, and the 3 numbers minW-maxW-SigmaL may be enough for a pricing calculator ?
When do you mean this check is done ?
During web quote ? or as they load PCB files for manufacture ?
What tools do you use now to create/merge the filmworks/drills, and panelize ?
Is this just a sweep over tracks (reading their width setting and finding the minimum of it) or does this also take zones (polygons) into account? (For zones one would need geometric calculations to find the minimum width. This could get quite involved.) If it does not take zones into account then this result will give you a false sense of security.
This is what I meant. If the purpose is to load and check any gerbers, not only those produced by KiCad, thereās no guarantee that a track or a zone or a pad is made with certain gerber graphical feature. If KiCad doesnāt already have geometric functions for all possible gerber shapes and/or features it will really be quite involved, to find minimum widths and spaces. Naturally I wasnāt speaking about finding minimum value amongst group of existing values.
Good question, there was a thread about someone worried about curved notches in touching zones.
It seems dropping the Zone MinW is a quick way to shrink that, with minimal other impact.
It seems KiCad ->GerbView manages as a distinct polygon, so a .01mm polygon might be able to avoid a false-error. This was a rare case, but it is a real reason to have a somewhat mathematical polygon width.
Well, yes, even being able to reliably load other-flows file sets Iād taken as a can of worms, and this was taken as being a Quote KiCad Design(WEB) or Report KiCad Design(FAB) type macro-button
Maybe PcbNew can drop in as a Gerber comment, the smallest clearance, & clearance list, to pass that missing piece over. So the default gerber info is a few lines larger.
Thatās a pcbnew change, but when doing that, it might also sweep for the layers Min/Maxes and report those too. Then itās all there for a text editor or script bot to peek at.
Expanding on this (would become a feature request for pcbnew File Limits info as comments in Gerbers)
The above is natural for all coppers, ā¦ but leaves a little blindspot for Drill info.
Turns out that is almost already covered, as default Excellon is used by most PCB FABs and there is an Drill optional File Format Gerber, and that loads/renders identically in GerbView.
- but this really needs an option to generate both choices, to avoids users forgetting to update one.
Quote KiCad Design(WEB) would use Gerber drill info, and the
PCB FAB would load the Excellon, and check the Gerber, ie both are used by fab.
GerbView would logically get some spreadsheet like pane, that shows these file limits comment lines.
Hi Anson, I emailed you. I will get my colleague into the discussion on email and we will help you figure out whether you need to use KiCAD as Wayne mentioned or some other approach.
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Thanks for a detailed and informative reply Gyros.
I always like easy APIs, they can also server as excellent material for scripting tutorials if the wrappers are coded clearly.
KiCAD appears to use swig for generating the Python interface to pcbnew (and 2.7.14 at that!) but none of the other apps appear to be scriptable. Unless I missed somethingā¦ In FreeCAD the entire application can be scripted with Python and you can in fact create parts just by writing python code. I also noted early on that there is no official documentation for the scripting interface to pcbnew. (Yes, I saw the skeleton doc on readthedocs but it did not appear to have any content.) Maybe I missed something againā¦
SO tell me, has the CERN support turned out to not be so grand after all? Iāve never seen numbers but I was under the impression they had committed to funding some serious development work to get KiCAD up to professional muster. Lately all I have seen is fund raisersā¦
I consider the GAL Framework, push and shove router etc some major work. I believe All around scripting support hasnt been highest priority
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My take on that, is that the CERN support was/is invaluable.
It gave credibility at a time when many forks were diluting effort, and it also popped out serious software engine room stuff like Shove Routers !
Another quite recent support milestone, (full effect nowhere near seen yet) is Digikeyās Library & donation ā¦
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Digikey is doing a fantastic job for KiCAD. We are now using their libraries which appear to work fine with 5.000. BOM integration with the digikey process is our next holy grail.
CERNās announcement put KiCAD on the mind of every physicist on Earth, that is a good place to be for KiCAD. Physicists like to build their own tools, that is for certain.
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OffTopic:
Tbh, itās a curse, as Iām quite often (esp consumer products) not satisfied whatās available - even for a lot of money and then āhave to do itā myself 
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A nice thing that every manufacturerās website should have is to allow customers to upload project files directly also (besides gerbers). What I mean here is that itās easier for me to upload the Kicad pcb file only and the website should process it and generate the gerber files as needed and required by the manufacturer. This saves some hassle on my side because some manufacturers donāt support some specific features of the generated gerber files like extended attributes for example and I tend to forget this kind of nifty details when submittingā¦
There are already websites which support this like other users already mentioned in this thread so it would be a really nice thing to have @anson. P.S. Iām a customer who used your services some while ago - keep up the good work!
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