PyGerber

PyGerber is a Python implementation of Gerber X3/X2 format. It is based on Ucamco's The Gerber Layer Format Specification. Revision 2023.03 (Available on Ucamco's webpage and in this repository). The goal of this project is to provide support for wide variety of Gerber-like syntaxes, with support for most of deprecated features along with support for modern ones.

📚 See online documentation 📚

Target set of tools:

• Tokenizer
• Parser
• Optimizer
• Introspection API
• Rasterized 2D rendering engine (With Pillow)
• Vector 2D rendering engine (With drawsvg)
• Model 3D rendering engine (With Blender)
• Formatter
• Linter (eg. deprecated syntax detection)
• Gerber X3/X2 Language Server (with language-server extras)

You can view progress of development in Gerber features support section down below. All Gerber source files which can be redistributed under MIT license and included in this repository for testing purposes will be greatly appreciated.

Installation

PyGerber can be installed with pip from PyPI:

pip install pygerber

Alternatively, it is also possible to install it directly from repository:

pip install git+https://github.com/Argmaster/pygerber

Language Server

Since release 2.1.0 PyGerber now provides Gerber X3/X2 Language Server with LSP support. It can be enabled by installing PyGerber extras set language-server with following command:

pip install pygerber[language-server]

Afterwards you can use pygerber is-language-server-available to check if language server was correctly enabled. Please report all issues in PyGerber Issues section.

Command line usage

After installing pygerber, depending on your environment, it should become available in your command line:

pygerber --version

Output should be similar to one below ⇩, where x.y.z should match version of PyGerber installed.

$ pygerber --version
pygerber, version x.y.z

Use --help to display help messages with lists of subcommands and subcommand options:

pygerber raster-2d --help

To render 2D PNG image of some gerber file you can simply use:

pygerber raster-2d gerber-source.grb

Image will be saved to output.png in current working directory.

Programmatic usage

JPG

PyGerber can be used programmatically to render Gerber files. Below is an minimalistic example of how to render one of the example files included with PyGerber release to JPEG image:

from pygerber.examples import ExamplesEnum, get_example_path
from pygerber.gerberx3.api.v2 import GerberFile

GerberFile.from_file(
    get_example_path(ExamplesEnum.UCAMCO_ex_2_Shapes),
).parse().render_raster("output.jpg")

Running code above will create output.jpg file in current working directory which should look like this:

PNG

It is also possible to render Gerber files to PNG with custom resolution and different color schemes:

from pygerber.examples import ExamplesEnum, get_example_path
from pygerber.gerberx3.api.v2 import ColorScheme, GerberFile, PixelFormatEnum

GerberFile.from_file(
    get_example_path(ExamplesEnum.ShapeFlashes),
).parse().render_raster(
    "output.png",
    dpmm=100,
    color_scheme=ColorScheme.COPPER_ALPHA,
    pixel_format=PixelFormatEnum.RGBA,
)

Code above renders following image:

SVG

Finally you can also create SVG files with PyGerber:

from pygerber.examples import ExamplesEnum, load_example
from pygerber.gerberx3.api.v2 import GerberFile

source_code = load_example(ExamplesEnum.UCAMCO_ex_2_Shapes)
GerberFile.from_str(source_code).parse().render_svg("output.svg")

Multiple layers

PyGerber can also render multiple layers to single image. Below is an example of how to render four layers to single PNG image with use of Project class:

from pygerber.examples import ExamplesEnum, load_example
from pygerber.gerberx3.api.v2 import FileTypeEnum, GerberFile, Project

Project(
    [
        GerberFile.from_str(
            load_example(ExamplesEnum.simple_2layer_F_Cu),
            FileTypeEnum.COPPER,
        ),
        GerberFile.from_str(
            load_example(ExamplesEnum.simple_2layer_F_Mask),
            FileTypeEnum.MASK,
        ),
        GerberFile.from_str(
            load_example(ExamplesEnum.simple_2layer_F_Paste),
            FileTypeEnum.PASTE,
        ),
        GerberFile.from_str(
            load_example(ExamplesEnum.simple_2layer_F_Silkscreen),
            FileTypeEnum.SILK,
        ),
    ],
).parse().render_raster("output.png", dpmm=40)

Here is the result:

Advanced usage

Additionally to examples presented above which use high level API, PyGerber provides low level API which allows to directly access PyGerber internals and change behavior of parser, tokenizer and renderers. This can be used for code introspection and potentially other purposed. Check out documentation for more information.

Documentation

Official documentations is hosted on Github Pages and can be found here.

Gerber features support

Please refer to documentation for

• Tokenizer,
• Parser,
• Rasterized2DBackend,
• Parser2,
• SvgRenderer2,
• RasterRenderer2,

for detailed list of features which are supported/not supported by each tool.

Syntax feature requests

All deprecated features (Mainly those from X2 format) are considered optional and priority to implement them will be assigned based on number of requests form community.

If You needs support for syntax features which are not mentioned in The Gerber Layer Format Specification. Revision 2023.08 (Available on Ucamco's webpage and in this repository) and this feature is not already listed in Support paragraph, please open a new Feature request issue.

Feature request Issue should contain:

• detailed description how requested feature works,
• code samples for testing the feature,
• reference images (only applies to features changing image look).

Requests which don't comply with those guidelines will be considered low priority.

Development

To quickly set up development environment, first you have to install poetry globally:

pip install poetry

Afterwards you will be able to create development virtual environment:

poetry shell

Then You have to install dependencies into this environment:

poetry install

And pre-commit hooks:

poe install-hooks

Now you are good to go. Whenever you commit changes, pre-commit hooks will be invoked. If they fail or change files, you will have to re-add changes and commit again.

Build from source

To build PyGerber from source You have to set up Development environment first. Make sure you have poetry environment activated with:

poetry shell

With environment active it should be possible to build wheel and source distribution with:

poetry build

Check dist directory within current working directory, pygerber-x.y.z.tar.gz and pygerber-x.y.z-py3-none-any.whl should be there.

Gerber reference archive

This repository contains also archival reference files. Although new specs contain dedicated changelog section it may still be helpful in some rare cases to look through old Gerber specs. Archival files can be found here.