Robert Green asked:
Does anyone know of a Gerber package that is capable of extracting a netlist
from a set of gerber files?

CAM350 does from ACT.

Using an IPC-D-356 Netlist saves $ during the design of PCB's
We also use CAM350 to extract an IPC-D-356 netlist file.  Our Host CAD system is
ACCEL EDA and we translate our design file into the CAM350 format.  Then we
extract an IPC-D-356 netlist using the CAM350 software.  When we order boards we
send Gerber files and this netlist file.  The board shops extract there own
netlist file and checks it against our IPC-D-356 netlist file.  When there is a
problem it is caught and corrected BEFORE boards are made.  Before using an
IPC-D-356 netlist file we paid for electrical test and the best we could hope
for was that either they were all good or they were all bad.  Now we know that
the board is electrically tested with the designs real netlist and the savings
has more than paid for the price of the software.

ACT also has a free viewer that you can use to view their CAM350 databases
called CAMvu.  This is better for us than viewing the Gerber alone because you
can light up the nets as you check things.

Hope this is helpful

Cyrus Ringle
Sr. CAD Specialist at Inter-Tel ---- http://www.inter-tel.com
7300 West Boston Street
Chandler, AZ 85226
Email [log in to unmask]
Voice (602) 961-9000 x21216 or Direct 961-2263
Fax (602)961-1370
On September 1st the area code will change to (480)

Vice President of the Greater Phoenix Designers Council ----  A part of the IPC
http://www.ipc.org/html/framesetdestypes.html
PO Box 3805
Scottsdale, AZ 85271

Inter-Tel is a single point of contact, full service
provider of digital business telephone systems, IP
telephony products, CTI applications, voice
processing software and long distance calling
services. Inter-Tel's award- winning products and
services include the AXXESS and Inter-Tel
Axxent digital business communication platforms,
the AXXESSORY Talk voice processing
platform, the Inter-Tel Vocal'Net IP telephony
gateway, the Inter-Tel Vocal'Net Service Provider
Software and Centralized Accounting Software
and the Inter-Tel.net private IP long distance
network. The Company also provides
maintenance, leasing and support services for its
products. The Company's Common Stock is
quoted on the Nasdaq National Market System
under the symbol INTL. For more information,
contact Inter-Tel at (602) 302-8900 or
http://www.inter-tel.com or
http://www.inter-tel.net on the World Wide Web.




"Robert D. Green" <[log in to unmask]> on 07/16/99 09:06:35 AM

Please respond to "TechNet E-Mail Forum." <[log in to unmask]>; Please respond to
      [log in to unmask]

To:   [log in to unmask]
cc:    (bcc: Cyrus Ringle/Inter-Tel)
Subject:  [TN] Gerber visualization freeware




     Since we're on the subject of Gerber software, does anyone know of a
     Gerber package that is capable of extracting a netlist from a set of
     gerber files?

     Thanks!!

     -----------------------------------------------------------
     Robert D. Green
     e-mail:  [log in to unmask]

##############################################################
TechNet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c
##############################################################
To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text
in
the body:
To subscribe:   SUBSCRIBE TECHNET <your full name>
To unsubscribe:   SIGNOFF TECHNET
##############################################################
Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional
information.
If you need assistance - contact Gayatri Sardeshpande at [log in to unmask] or
847-509-9700 ext.5365
##############################################################

##############################################################
TechNet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c
##############################################################
To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in
the body:
To subscribe:   SUBSCRIBE TECHNET <your full name>
To unsubscribe:   SIGNOFF TECHNET
##############################################################
Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional
information.
If you need assistance - contact Gayatri Sardeshpande at [log in to unmask] or
847-509-9700 ext.5365
##############################################################