Reverse Workflow

[PCB_Wiz]

@janvi

There is a XGerber file from last PCB order and a printed schematic and board population drawing available on paper.

No email copies anywhere ? - Even pre-final review copies could save time ?

How complex is the Board, and how much of the flow do you need ?

@janvi

I heard about import possibility of Gerber into PCBnew.

Gerbview can export PCBnew formats, but with a rather modest IQ.
ie There is no footprint info, and no drill info preservation, but I think GerbVIEW was improving this area, so be sure to try the latest versions.

Once imported, you can manually drop proper footprints onto the traces, and a tool like this WireIT can manually add-nets

WireIt: PCBNEW plugin for adding/cutting/swapping wires in the physical layout

I’ve released WireIt, a PCBNEW plugin that lets you add nets, remove nets, and swap pins on the physical layout. Changes made in the layout can be dumped to a file for backannotation into the schematic. There is a short video demonstrating its use. I’m using WireIt in conjunction with PadPainter to do I/O pin assignments from an FPGA to surrounding peripherals so that the wiring is as crossover-free as I can make it.

Once you add the Pin-Net names, the Trace-Net names ‘auto attach’.