Align Gerber Files
Align your Gerber files using GerbView
Some EDA tools use different reference origins for different Gerber files.
When files are exported with different origins they will appear offset when overlaid in a viewer or by a manufacturer.
Misalignment can also occur if the bottom layer is exported with mirroring.
With GerbView you can easily make sure all Gerber files are properly aligned before you send them to a manufacturer.
This short tutorial will demonstrate how you can align your files and then export these to new corrected files.
Step 1 - Add your files as layers:
Load all the required Gerber layers by using the Add Layer command which is found under the Home tab.
In this tutorial we will load just two files and then align them.
If one or more of your files require mirroring, you do need to mirror them before starting the alignment process.
Step 2 - Align your layers:
After you have added all required layers, select the Align Layers tool found under the Home Tab as shown below:
After you have activated the Align Layers tool you will be asked to select an item from the first file.
Before you do this, you should try to find an item that is present in both layers, for example a pad or a track.
While the align layers mode is active you can use the zoom and pan operations to move around.
In the picture below we've zoomed in
and indicated two pads we want to use for the alignment.
We will keep the blue layer as "master" and we will select the blue pad first.
Select the first item, our blue pad, and you will then be asked to select the corresponding item in the second file (orange layer).
We will then select the orange pad to the right of the highlighted pad we just selected.
After the second item has been selected the layers will automatically align as shown below:
Step 3 - Save the aligned files as new Gerber files:
When you're satisfied with the alignment result, you can now save the changed layers to new Gerber files.
We will use the Save as RS-274X Multi tool for this purpose.
This tool can be found under the Conversion tab as shown below:
A dialog will appear where you can select which files to save as new files.
Select an output folder for the new files or select the Use Source Folder option to place
the new Gerber files in the same folder as the original files.
Make sure to select another extension than the original files if you don't want to overwrite these files.
Since we have aligned our files it is important that the option named Use Aligned Workspace Offsets is selected.
Sample dialog:
The last thing to do is to press the Start button.
Your aligned files are now successfully saved as new files.
