GerberCAM is an opensource software to convert a PCB gerber file to a CNC machine manufacture file(G-code).The following picture shows GerberCAM’s role in PCB prototyping process.
GerberCAM currently support following features.
● Recieve gerber file in RS-274X format only
● Up to two layers(top & bottom)
● Pad holes automatic recognition
● Tool bits(drill,conical,cylindrical) generation & management
● Automatically treat closed loop as contour path
● Can determine contour path by thresholds
● Single bit toolpath
● Automatically DRC and show the collided path
● pads with rotation
● Round
● Rectangle
● Obround
● Teardrop(● Track ● Arc)
● straight line
GerberCAM is still a prototype.After three months of heavy development and testing it’s suspended.It has a fast generation time comparing to CopperCAM 2012,which is the CAM software I’ve been using to generate G-code for PCB prototyping for years.It can also handle some PCBs which can’t be supported by CopperCAM.
However,since I don’t have a CNC machine to test the software anymore so I didn’t continue to work on this project.I’ve been using hundreds of gerber files and thousands of times to test all current functions.There are still a lot of testing and verification work to do in the future.If anyone is interested in this project,feel free to fork it.Also I’ve been writing a detailed document about the implementation of GerberCAM on my blog.There are several opensource CAM software projects out there and I hope my works could contribute any help.
Here’s the link to the document.
GerberCAM requires Windows and Qt 5.15.2 (LTS) with mingw81_32 (also as tool) to build. It uses the environment variable QT_ROOT_DIR to locate the Mingw folder, it is commonly C:\Qt\5.15.2\mingw81_32.
It is work in progress. At the moment only the debug build works.