Gerbv is an open source Gerber file (RS-274X only) viewer. Gerbv lets you load several files on top of each other, do measurements on the displayed image, etc.

Besides viewing Gerbers, you may also view Excellon drill files as well as pick-place files.

Gerber files are typically output by a PCB CAD tool (such as the gEDA Project's PCB), and are sent to a PCB manufacturer who uses the files for manufacturing Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs).

There are two standards defining Gerber files: a newer one called RS-274X and an old one called RS-274D.

Gerber files generated in the old format (RS-274D) lack aperture information, which must be supplied separately. The new standard (RS-274X) embeds aperture information into the file.

NOTE: If you want to avoid building Gerbv from source you can install fink and issue the follwing command from a Terminal window:

fink install gerbv

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· gerbv: fixed a minor arc rendering bug in fast mode
· gerbv: Make the svg/pdf/ps export use a 1:1 scale instead of scaling to fit the page.
· configure: Always require cairo now since we make use of some of the transformation functions even when using gdk rendering.
· gerbv: Fix a bug in the vertical scrollbar calculations.
· libgerbv: Fix a bug where apertures < 10 were potentially ignored in some drill files
· gerbv: Fix clipping bug when viewing files with image offsets
· gerbv: Fix a bug whereclicking on the message tab caused the keyboard accelerators stop working
· gerbv: Use a reasonable return code when doing command line processing.
· libgerbv: Improve the macro parser.
· libgerbv: Allow 0 degree rotation
· libgerbv: Fix some drill parser bugs
· libgerbv: Support the Excellon "R" (repeat) command
· testsuite: Add some tests for drill files
· libgerbv: Fix a bug in the Excellon export which sometimes dropped the first element.
· libgerbv: Fix some additional Excellon export bugs.
· gerbv: Add the a...