6 ms·

Pcb-stackup: Generate beautiful and accurate SVG renders of printed circuit boards

66 points by based2 10y ago

VeejayRampay 10y ago
Really like projects like these. Nice building block that'll make like easier for people to share information about boards in the future. Awesome.
davidhyde 10y ago
This is a great project but why is the example image a raster png rather than an svg?
- jnbiche 10y ago
  SVGs don't work in Github READMEs. I believe this is for security reasons.
  - sja 10y ago
    This is true, though there is a workaround by using cdn.saw fit.com domain. I use the trick to display SVG figures in these white paper notes[1], and I found out about it in this issue thread[2] Example: <img src="http://cdn.rawgit.com/<username>/<path>/<to>/<image.svg>"> http://cdn.rawgit.com/<username>/<path>/<to>/<image.svg>"> [1]: https://github.com/samjabrahams/tensorflow-white-paper-notes/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/samjabrahams/tensorflow-white-paper-notes... [2]: https://github.com/isaacs/github/issues/316#issuecomment-113790202 https://github.com/isaacs/github/issues/316#issuecomment-113...
duhast 10y ago
What about component models?
- svens_ 10y ago
  This is only a Gerber file renderer. Gerber files only contain manufacturing data (it's basically a vector image format). So 3D models would be very hard to add. It would only work if you export a BOM with position data and references to STEP files for your board. This is not currently supported by most commercial software (no idea if it's possible with KiCad), positions are easy to get, but then you'd still need the 3D models (including position offsets and rotation).
aylons 10y ago
This is very interesting and something that I can really apply at work? Does anyone knows how this compares to Gerber-to-svg? https://github.com/mcous/gerber-to-svg https://github.com/mcous/gerber-to-svg
- paddi91 10y ago
  It has gerber-to-svg as an dependency, so I'm curious what it actually adds to this.
  - desdiv 10y ago
    A PCB consists of multiple layers, each one of which is described by a gerber file. gerber-to-svg renders each individual layer to svg; this project aggregates all the layers and stacks them up (hence the name) in the proper order.
    - aylons 10y ago
      Thank you! Macrofab does this for their web tool, from their Github I guess they merge gerber-to-svg with this SVG Stacker: https://github.com/MacroFab/SVG-Stacker https://github.com/MacroFab/SVG-Stacker
      - drone 10y ago
        You're right, sort of! =) We use gerber-to-svg (it is the best we've ever worked with) server-side, but we use svg-stacker to generate images for the cases where we need them (thumbnails, printouts, etc.) On the front-end, we use html5 canvas rather than a pre-stacked SVG.
mmosta 10y ago
Somewhat related and in reverse, generate beautiful [0] gerbers for manufacture from SVG/JSON definitions using PCBmodE. [1] [0] http://www.boldport.com/blog/2015/11/25/haute-circuits http://www.boldport.com/blog/2015/11/25/haute-circuits [1] http://pcbmode.com/ http://pcbmode.com/
smilekzs 10y ago
As @aylons mentioned this is just a thin wrapper onmcous/gerber-to-svg; Moreover mcous has written http://svgerber.cousins.io/ http://svgerber.cousins.io/ himself.
- kasbah 10y ago
  This is in fact a thin wrapper, that I mostly wrote, around a fat wrapper that mcous wrote (pcb-stackup-core). Check out http://viewer.tracespace.io http://viewer.tracespace.io for the updated svgerber style viewer.

66 points by based2 10y ago

Really like projects like these. Nice building block that'll make like easier for people to share information about boards in the future. Awesome.

davidhyde 10y ago

This is a great project but why is the example image a raster png rather than an svg?

jnbiche 10y ago
SVGs don't work in Github READMEs. I believe this is for security reasons.
- sja 10y ago
  This is true, though there is a workaround by using cdn.saw fit.com domain. I use the trick to display SVG figures in these white paper notes[1], and I found out about it in this issue thread[2] Example: <img src="http://cdn.rawgit.com/<username>/<path>/<to>/<image.svg>"> http://cdn.rawgit.com/<username>/<path>/<to>/<image.svg>"> [1]: https://github.com/samjabrahams/tensorflow-white-paper-notes/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/samjabrahams/tensorflow-white-paper-notes... [2]: https://github.com/isaacs/github/issues/316#issuecomment-113790202 https://github.com/isaacs/github/issues/316#issuecomment-113...

duhast 10y ago

What about component models?

svens_ 10y ago
This is only a Gerber file renderer. Gerber files only contain manufacturing data (it's basically a vector image format). So 3D models would be very hard to add. It would only work if you export a BOM with position data and references to STEP files for your board. This is not currently supported by most commercial software (no idea if it's possible with KiCad), positions are easy to get, but then you'd still need the 3D models (including position offsets and rotation).

aylons 10y ago

This is very interesting and something that I can really apply at work? Does anyone knows how this compares to Gerber-to-svg? https://github.com/mcous/gerber-to-svg https://github.com/mcous/gerber-to-svg

paddi91 10y ago
It has gerber-to-svg as an dependency, so I'm curious what it actually adds to this.
- desdiv 10y ago
  A PCB consists of multiple layers, each one of which is described by a gerber file. gerber-to-svg renders each individual layer to svg; this project aggregates all the layers and stacks them up (hence the name) in the proper order.
  - aylons 10y ago
    Thank you! Macrofab does this for their web tool, from their Github I guess they merge gerber-to-svg with this SVG Stacker: https://github.com/MacroFab/SVG-Stacker https://github.com/MacroFab/SVG-Stacker
    - drone 10y ago
      You're right, sort of! =) We use gerber-to-svg (it is the best we've ever worked with) server-side, but we use svg-stacker to generate images for the cases where we need them (thumbnails, printouts, etc.) On the front-end, we use html5 canvas rather than a pre-stacked SVG.

mmosta 10y ago

Somewhat related and in reverse, generate beautiful [0] gerbers for manufacture from SVG/JSON definitions using PCBmodE. [1] [0] http://www.boldport.com/blog/2015/11/25/haute-circuits http://www.boldport.com/blog/2015/11/25/haute-circuits [1] http://pcbmode.com/ http://pcbmode.com/

smilekzs 10y ago

As @aylons mentioned this is just a thin wrapper onmcous/gerber-to-svg; Moreover mcous has written http://svgerber.cousins.io/ http://svgerber.cousins.io/ himself.

kasbah 10y ago
This is in fact a thin wrapper, that I mostly wrote, around a fat wrapper that mcous wrote (pcb-stackup-core). Check out http://viewer.tracespace.io http://viewer.tracespace.io for the updated svgerber style viewer.