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GBR2MIC Revision History

This page documents the revisions made to the GBR2MIC program. Please consult it to determine if you are running the current version and to see what fixes/enhancements have been made to the program.


v2.70 7/15/2024

Issue with non-printing characters

This version fixes a problem where non-printing characters inside a LAYER NAME directive (%LN) caused Gbr2Mic to drop data.
The new version of gbr2mic quitely removes from the input stream all characters (except CR and NL) that are not between SPACE and ~.


v2.69d 1/30/2024

Issue with Gerber preprocessor split274x

This version fixes a problem that resulted in the crash of the Gerber preprocessor split274x. The crash was not associated with a single or any particular polygon in customer Gerber file, rather so many warnings were generated during preprocessing it overflowed a static buffer that was not large enough to accommodate the string length of the report. The offending code was changed to protect against this condition and in addition, the buffer in question is now dynamically allocated.
Some problems in error/warning reporting were discovered while investigating this issue and these have been corrected; previously not all warning and errors detected by the boolean library were reported.


v2.69c 12/6/2023

Issue with poorly drawn polygon

This version fixes all the issues that were attempted to be corrected in v2.69. There appeared one remaining issue in v2.69b where a 10 nm wide polygon created as part of conditioning (-qualify which is now by default passed to the split274x Gerber preprocessor) was dropped by a downstream module just before the formatter. This module was changed to address this issue.


v2.69b 9/28/2023

Issue with poorly drawn polygon

The previous release v2.69 addressed an issue where degenerate polygons fooled the LA formatter with respect to polygon orientation. Some of the polygons were interpretted as scratch data or some constituent "loops" that made up these polygons were interpreted as scratch data. This was fixed by qualifying all polygons at the Gerber level, i.e. in the split274x Gerber preprocessor. Customer complained that some polygon data that were repaired by v2.69 were truncated with features on the other of 40 nm. v2.69b retains the spikes that were truncated.


v2.69a 7/18/2023

GUI Revision number

Updated the revision number in the GUI.


v2.69 7/18/2023

New Gerber Preprocessor Method

By default this version turns on a new option (-qualify) in the Gerber preprocessor where G37/G36 fills are passed to the boolean engine for validation. The Gerber preprocessor does this making use of multi-threading as much as possible, i.e. it buffers polygon data and will process these polygons en-masse when triggered by a layer polarity change. Because this process is multi-threaded, this new functionality should not significantly impact throughput.
The new command line option "-qualify" can be turned off with "--qualify" by adding it to the SplitArgs resource field in the .artwork/gbr2mic.Xdefaults file:

gbr2mic.SplitArgs:      --qualify
It can also be done in the GBR2MIC user interface by going to the File > Preferences > Options... dialog.
Addition of this new mode to the flow fixes an issue where polygons with an acute corner that appear at the polygon's min Y, min X coordinate fooled the LA formatter when determining a polygon's orientation (hence polarity).

micvu64

64 and 32 bit versions of micvu are now included in the gbr2mic package.

Support for Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS

The gbr2mic package now runs seamlessly on Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS. As this platform does not support a 32 bit subsystem, micvu was not available on previous releases of gbr2mic; the 64 bit version of micvu remedies that. Some minor changes were made to address some Ubuntu idiosyncrasies. At installation time, micvu is soft-linked to micvu64.


v2.68d 10/14/2022

Software Updates

This version includes the latest Gerber modules and boolean engine.


v2.68b 1/14/2021

Software Updates

This version is the same as 2.68a with the exception of 3 files - gbr2gdxm, split274x64, and version.txt


v2.68a 1/12/2021

Software Updates

This version fixes the long time preprocessing issue reported by Mycronic for g508598-2.gbx. The issue had nothing to do with file size limitations - The real problem was a "hang" (a multi-threading deadlock) in the preprocessor as the result of unique construction of this file.


v2.68 7/16/2020

Software Updates

Fixed an overflow issue when the input file has a very large extent.

Fixed the issue where clear/scratch data is missing from the output.

Added a check for span output tolerance when precision may be lost from a non standard Gerber input file. When this issue is caught, the user has an option to specify a larger span tolerance (for example: -sr_span_tol:0.2um) or to specify a format with more precision using the "-fmt:NM" optional argument (for example -fmt:26).
The user should be careful in using such large precision especially if the extent of the input file is large.


v2.67 12/19/2019

Software Update

This version fixed a bug in the formatter where it outputs a polygon with a zero radius arc in the wrong polarity. This manifests itself as a malformed pattern. LA files do not support arcs with widths so we convert these arcs into polygons. In one of those polygons, a vanishing arc is created. In the previous release, the formatter reverses the polarity of these polygons. In this release, the formatter outputs the polygon correctly by ignoring the zero radius arc and treating it as a line segment.


v2.66 10/29/2019

Updated xgbrvu

In previous releases, xgbrvu was using an old version of Flexlm and its node lock licensing didn't work in Ubuntu 16. In this release, we updated the viewer with a newer version of Flex and added a 64bit version of the viewer.


v2.65 08/20/2019

Software Updates

This version fixes a crash when trying to set the Working Directory.
Removed the AptGen option (old aperture generator).


v2.64 08/19/2019

New Flash Synthesis Function

Version 2.64 includes a new Synthesize Flash Option which can be turned ON in gbr2mic's Setting Dialog.

Some Gerber files make extensive use of the G36/G37 command to draw geometries such as rectangles and circles. This These poorly optimized files take a long time to convert to MIC and produces a larger MIC output than necessary.

The Synthesize Flash Option can detect such drawn shapes and output them as flashes to a new smaller Gerber file.

The user can also set a maximum dimension for this synthesis - any G36/G37 shapes that exceed that dimension will not be converted to flashes.

When synthesizing rectangular flashes from polygons, the software uses one tenth of the macro tolerance. The default value used for rectangular polygon synthesis is 0.1um or 100nm.
Macro tolerance is used in the Gerber pre-processor module for instances when the input Gerber file has multiple macro definitions that are "essentially" the same within the given tolerance. This reduces the number of macros defined in the file. The default macro tolerance is 1um.
As a result, synthesizing rectangular flashes can differ from the original data by up to 0.1um.
If the user wants a more precise synthesized macro, he/she can specify a smaller tolerance in the Preprocessor Optional Arguments located in the gbr2mic Options menu.
For example: -macro_tol:0.00001. (The value on the command line is in the units of the Gerber input file, MM or INCH).

gbr2mic Macro Tolerance

This new draw-to-flash function improves the conversion speed on some Gerber files. For files that make extensive use of G36/G37 to draw rectangular and circular shapes we saw up to 10x speed improvement in conversion time.




v2.63 07/10/2019

Software Updates

This new release fixes a program crash when translating a 54GB Gerber file.
This new release fixes a problem where a Gerber file had SR command with more than 43000 along one of the axes. The limit now is 64000.
This new release fixes a problem where gbr2mic dropped data with no errors when using chord error of 0.01 micron.




v2.62a     (12/6/2018)

Support for Ubuntu 9.10

This new release checks if libstdc++ is incompatible and chooses an older vintage of the library during installation. This was needed to support older versions of Ubuntu such as 9.10.




v2.62     (11/6/2018)

Software Updates

Added an option to end conversion when error occurs.

Added an option to keep zero width flashes - some of gbr2mic data may include zero width. This data will not show in the final output but it can affect the extent of the output if it happens to be on the outer edges.




v2.61     (4/26/2018)

Large arc radius issue

This version fixes the big arc issue by automatically passing the ArcSag value (set in the Configuration dialog) to the pre-processor.

In a normal run when "Arc Segmentation" is not checked then the only circular data in the flow path from Gerber to LA file that gets preserved are round flashes and donuts and the end caps of round path draws.
However, if during preprocessing of the Gerber file some circular data is suspected of being problematic, it will be converted to segmented data. The two most common conditions are very short arc segments which are replaced with a single linear draw and "shallow" arcs where the radius is very large.
In this latter case the arc is replaced by segmented data approximating the original curve. If this condition is flagged by the preprocessor, a message to this effect will show up in the log file (Circular data exceeded 31 bit integer range). This message is not an error but only informational.

Other informational messages (none of which necessarily imply a problem) that can appear include:

The following conditions were trapped while processing this file

  An AS Axis Select mass parameter was encountered or set by user
  An MI Mirror Image mass parameter was encountered or set by user
  At least one large vertex count polygon was broken up into smaller pieces
  Data extents exceed 31 bit integer range
  Data extents exceed original Format Statement
  Essentially identical dcodes were removed
  Essentially identical macros were removed
  Exceeded highest alllowed Dcode: 9999
  File rewritten: polarity changed as per user (-ippos:1) or policy
  File rewritten: was %FSLI now %FSLA
  File rewritten: was %FSTA now %FSLA
  Format Statement exceeds eight digits
  Multiply defined decodes were encountered
  Redundant LPD and/or LPCs removed

Modified the GUI to enable the button for the Configuration dialog (only if Auto Use Previous Configuration is not set). The ArcSag in the config dialog value must be set to the intended value before selecting an input file. If the value is changed after selecting the input file, it must be re-selected again to reflect the change in pre-processing the file..




v2.60     (3/27/2018)

Software Update

The default chord error is changed from 1um to 0.1um.

This version includes additional X libraries in the bin/lib folders to support various Linux platforms.

This version (as the previous version v2.59a) will not replace or modify an existing copy of the ~/.artwork/gbr2mic.Xdefaults file during installation.




v2.59a     (2/27/2018)

Software Update

This version fixes an issue that was manifest when redundant (consecutive) %LPC*% and %LPD*% commands were issued for empty layers. This condition caused the Gerber preprocessor to compute incorrect file offsets to the Gerber file's internal layers which in return resulted in incorrect rendering of the Gerber layout.




v2.58     (2/17/2018)

Software Updates

Fixed an issue where a single polygon, made up of digitized areas connected by "cutlines", is dropped. The boolean function that processed/repaired holes and cutlines was updated.

Fixed an issue where data are dropped when an input Gerber file with Negative Image Polarity (IPNEG) starts with a Dark Level Polarity (LPD).

Fixed an issue where split274x was not able to handle polygons with large vertex count.

Fixed an issue where a Gerber file with an axis select that assigns output device axis A to data axis Y and axis B to data axis X (ASAYBX) is not rotated properly.




v2.57     (9/1/2017)

Bug Fix - Multiple aperture

Fixed a bug with multiple aperture substitution.




v2.53     (3/7/2017)

Bug Fix - Working Directory Crash

Fixed a crash when the Working Directory is clicked from the drop-down menu. This was caused by the directory dialog not being created beforehand.

64 Bit - split274X Parser

Added code to check if the machine/OS is 64 bit; if so the 64 bit version of split274x is used to process the incoming Gerber data. This allows larger maximum vertex count polygons that the 32 bit version cannot handle.

This was implemented to address a customer file that had a single polygon made up of more than 600,000 vertices. The 32 bit version of split274x could not handle such a polygon but the 64 bit version was able to break this polygon into multiple smaller polygons (each with < 32K vertices.) To perform this operation the 64 bit version used about 8GB of virtual memory (something a 32 bit implementation could not address.)




v2.51     (8/25/2016)

Software Updates

Modified gbr2mic to pop-up an "Error" instead of a "Success" message box on failure. In previous versions, an error was saved in the log file but wasn't reported in the GUI.




v2.30e     (2/17/2016)

Software Updates

This release takes care of three issues reported by clients.




v2.30c     (4/21/2015)

Large Macro Count

Enhanced multi-aperture support to include optimizations to remove redundant/equivalent DCODE and MACRO definitions. The following reductions were observed in real customer data with files that included over 50000 macro definitions.




v2.30b     (2/21/2015)

Large Vertex Count Polygon

Fixes an issue related to a problem that was the result of an extremely huge (> 4M vertices) vertex count in a single polygon. ADressing the problem required some optimizations and resulted in a reduction of conversion time from 8 hours to 10 minutes.

Vertex Count Limitations

There is no limit on number of vertices with polygons that do not contain circular data.

However, polygons, i.e. G36/G37 codes, with even a single circular command are still limited to 500K vertices after segmentation.




v2.30a     (2/10/2015)

Large Circle

This version fixes an error when an arc had an extremely large radius. The large radius causes an internal integer overflow.

The problem is now avoided by segmenting the data on the fly.




v2.30     (10/9/2014)

64 bit version supports output files > 4GB

This is the first release with 64 bit modules to support output files over 4GB.

One of the internal modules, gdxmiclf, (the LA/MIC file formatter) comes in two variants: 32 and 64 bit. The 32 bit module is first launched to preserve backward compatibility and if the program determines that it will not be able to create a proper output, it will spawn its 64 bit sibling (gdxmiclf64) to complete the same task that was demanded of it and then kill itself when gdx2miclf64 completes.




v2.28A 08/5/2013

Incorrect Extents in output file

The extent problem was related to using the largest dimension of a rectangular flash to compute extents. Now height and width are used.

Folded polygons in Gerber file

A user supplied file included many folded polygons, 7 of them were not converted properly.This version fixes the issue.




v2.28 06/18/2013

Incorrect extents in output file

This version has a new formatter gdxmiclf which fixes the extent issue with a customer file. The problem was related to extent calculation of one dimensional AREF data. These are directly related to SR constructs in the GERBER input files.

New gbr2mic front end

The version has a new front end shell gbr2mic which manifests the correct version number and a new Configuration dialog which now exhibits much improved behavior when the display server is Xming running on a PC. Previously the widgets attached to the Compaction group were displayed poorly.

Updated xgbrvu viewer

An updated version of xgbrvu is also included. The previous version of xgbrvu erased the macro file generated by the gbr2mic shell. This would generate a crash during subsequent translations under certain conditions. This problem has been fixed.




v2.27     (11/10/2011)

Incorrect G36/G37 polygon containing circular data

GBR2MIC failed to convert Gerber file which contained "bad" G36/G37 polygon containing circular data. This has been fixed.

In the offending polygon the end point coincides with the arc center. We now connect the start point to the end point with a linear draw. Another CAM tool has a different policy, it simply drops this arc data altogether.




v2.261     (9/8/2011)

Internal layers bigger than 2GB

GBR2MIC failed to convert Gerber file with internal layer that is positioned after the 2GB mark. This has been fixed.




v2.26     (6/12/2011)

Chord Error

GBR2MIC failed to convert Gerber file due to very small Arc Resolution. In this new version, if the chord error is set then it will determine smoothness, otherwise smoothness is determined by the arc resolution. This is a new policy and we hope it will make it easier to use the Chord Error parameter.
If a user depends on Arc Resolution for smoothness it will result in larger LA files and longer processing times.




v2.25     (4/29/2011)

Large file support

GBR2MIC now supports files over 2GB in size. Customer problem file was 4.5GB Gerber file.




v2.23a 08/20/2010

Flash Interpretation

Our GBR2MIC front end had trouble with a draw that collapses to a flash and no X or Y coordinate value appeared explicitly with the D01.

A typical problematic Gerber fragment looks like the following:

X0013215250Y0030720381D03*
G54D201*
X0012217030D02*
D01*                      <----- this Draw-To should become a flash
X0012799642D02*



v2.22 05/10/2010

Number of vertices per polygon

The number of allowed vertices in GBR2MIC has been raised to 512K (previously 256K).

The decomposition of large vertex polygons has been improved in two ways:




v2.20     (4/14/2010)

Polarity Error

The orientation of a circular boundary was handled incorrectly causing a scratch image instead of filled. This has been fixed.
Composite curve

A Gerber polygon with more than 32000 vertices wasn't handled correctly by the translator.
The problem occured in the module that is responsible for chaining data together in an internal construct called "composite curve". Instead of properly being chained together, overlaps were being created. The simple piece of bad code was corrected. The problem introduced with this bad piece of code was normally repaired by the software later on in the data flow. That is why it was never seen before. This particular case was seen because the repair failed.



v2.18     (3/11/2010)

Negative I J values

Data was dropped during the conversion when an array has negative IJ values. This has been fixed.




v2.17a     (2/04/2010)

Polarity Error

The orientation of a circular draw with non-zero width was incorrect when segmentation was turned off. This resulted in "scratch" data in the ST file when in fact the data should have been "paint". When the arc was broken up into segments the output was correct.

Fix: The broken code has been in place for over 10 years. Amazingly this coding error (a typo probably resulting from a copy and paste from a similar piece of code - the arc has two ends and the indices for an array of directional information used the data from the wrong end) has not surfaced before because there was some backup code which was able to take "corrective" action in case a consistency check failed. In the case of this particular circular draw the corrective action failed which resulted in the wrong orientation in the LA file. Only 8 characters in the code for the LA formatting module was changed. There were no algorithmic changes made and the v217a version passed the regression test without any exceptions.

Linux release and Flexlm support

First Linux release of GBR2MIC. This new version supports Flexlm floating with LM_LICENSE_FILE or ARTWORK_LICENSE_FILE environment variable to point to port@machine_name.


v2.16     (11/17/2009)

Error in processing composite curve with over 4000 vertices

The problem with this issue is related to the fact that Fill-On-Fly (POEX and G36/G37) data is treated as a "composite curve", i.e. a closed region whose boundary is composed from a sequence of a entities such as arcs (Gerber circular data G02/G03 data) and zero width draws (G01 data). There is no restriction regarding the length (i.e. vertex count) of the zero width draws; However, internally to the flow at one point these are chopped into pieces with maximum vertex count equal to 4000. The problem was due to the fact that the pieces which should be organized "tail" to "head" were not. A vertex between the "tails" and "head" was dropped which resulted in a "composite curve" with a gap.


v2.15     (9/2/2009)

Error in interpetation of Gerber file

The issue had to do with a Gerber file that was the concatenation of multiples 274x files. Even though it is supported, the filter that provides support for this capability incorrectly converted circular data to G01 linear data. This was a special case of G02/G03 data used to draw a circular fill area. The original code anticipated that G02/G03 codes used in G36/G37 blocks be part of something larger than a single coordinate, i.e. a circular fill.

Illegal polygon in Gerber file

Because the Micronic software is sensitive to illegal polygons, data is qualified and checked before conversion to LA format in both the GBR2MIC and DXF2MIC. The dropped vertex was the result of incorrectly repairing a polygon that was detected as having a small notch (< 0.010 um). The repair for the particular condition that was detected has been fixed.


v2.14     (7/24/2009)

Extent data

GBR2MIC reported extents of LA file that were off by 1 micron when Gerber data was reversed. This issue was fixed.

MICVU Windows

MICVU for Windows major release. This version supports the latest Flexlm licensing and includes all the features available on the Solaris version.


v2.12a     (7/24/2008)

Micvu paint/scratch issues with Micronic files

MICVU didn't display correctly paint/scratch data of LA files created directly by Micronic's Job Planner. This issue was fixed.

MICVU Windows

MICVU for Windows major release. This version supports the latest Flexlm licensing and includes all the features available on the Solaris version.


v2.12     (4/11/2008)

Data Extents too large

GBR2MIC would output an LA file with extents larger than they should. This was due to a very shallow arc. This issue was fixed.

Warning during scanning phase

A very large Gerber macro caused a warning at the scanning phase. This issue was fixed.


v2.11     (3/4/2008)

Polygon in wrong polarity

GBR2MIC would output a polygon with reversed orientation, resulting in a scratch rather than the desired paint). The problem as usual is the result poor quality customer data (that seems to be the nature of GERBER). This is issue has been fixed by adding the same polygon checking/repair code that was recently added to DXF2MIC.


v2.10     (2/28/2008)

Paint/Scratch layers

GBR2MIC would crash when the number of paint/scratch layers exceeded 512. This had been fixed and the limit now is 1024 paint/scratch layers.


v2.09     (11/30/2007)

Path Issue

GBR2MIC would crash when the path length was more than 1000 characters. The limit is 10000 now.

Another problem due to the path was incorrect layer table in LA file.

Extents in LA file

Extent reported in LA file was sometimes much larger than needed. This was fixed. This problem was the most severe in the context of GERBER files with large offsets, i.e. not centered about 0,0 and contained SR or LP blocks with extents were on the order of the GERBER file offset from the origin.


v2.08     (11/4/2007)

GBRUnion Speed Improvement

The speed of the GBRUnion module was improved by a factor of 2-4 in Compaction mode on the test files from LMTEC.


v2.07a     (10/27/2007)

GBRUnion Module Added

The GBRUnion module has been integrated into GBR2MIC. This module can unionize the input data prior to conversion and produces a MIC file that rasterizes much faster. It is primarily intended for very large Gerber files that can take hours to rasterize.

The GBRUnion module requires a separate license feature and when turned on it may require a longer conversion time. However the total processing time (conversion time + MIC raster time) is greatly reduced for very large files.

There are five modes of operation now.

  • standard (old mode) with segmentation of circular data that are part of composite curves.
  • standard (old mode) with segmentation control by arc resolution, and chord error.
  • compaction, i.e. with the exception of flashes (including GERBER macros) SR data is unionised; this mode implies (2.) segmentation; this mode is multi-threaded and takes advantage of multiple processors.
  • compaction followed by per layer unionization; this mode implies (2.) segmentation; this mode is multi-threaded and takes advantage of multiple processors
  • compaction followed by unionization across all layers; this mode implies (2.) segmentation; this mode is multi-threaded and takes advantage of multiple processors

    Solaris 8 and 10

    This version runs on Solaris 8 and 10.

    MICVU fix

    Micvu now supports 32 bit (true color) enabled displays. Bug reported by Frederic.

    274X update

    This version incorporates our latest Gerber RS274X reader.

    Support for complex boundaries

    This version supports complex boundaries with up to 500,000 verices in one polygon. Bug reported by Advanced Reproduction.

    SR Support

    This version has better support for the SR command. A bug was fixed when the SR values were negative.


    v2.03     (02/16/2007)

    File size limit corrected

    GBR2MIC failed to convert a very large Gerber file. The upper size limit has been greatly increased. [submitted by:Phoenix Precision Technology in Taiwan]


    v2.00     (08/31/2006)

    Supports Gerber File with multi aperture definition and a footprint of over 2GB

    GBR2MIC had a problem with a multi-aperture (same aperture defined twice with different values) as well as a flat footprint of over 2GB. Both issues were corrected. [submitted by: Lasertech]


    v1.99     (06/14/2005)

    Add Support for Gerber files with more than 7 digits of accuracy

    GBR2MIC failed to convert Gerber files that more than 7 digits of accuracy. This is now supported.


    v1.97     (11/12/2004)

    Improved Gerber RS274X reader

    Upgraded the Gerber 274X reader to the latest code. That includes several enhancements we made in our other Gerber products. This version also includes the latest Gerber viewer with better support for 274X files in both viewing and plotting.


    v1.93d     (08/30/2003)

    GBR2MIC library problem
    GBR2MIC failed to scan correctly Gerber files with duplicate aperture definitions on Solaris 2.8. Problem was fixed.


    v1.93c     (06/10/2003)

    XGBRVU Updates
    xgbrvu was not able to view file that started with the LPC command. This is now fixed.
    xgbrvu would not load any new MACRO definitions once a GERBER file with MACRO definitions had been loaded, this is fixed.
    Messaging appears while the GERBER file is being loaded giving the user better progress information.
    The ESC key trapping has been improved resulting in faster GERBER file loading and drawing


    v1.93a     (03/12/2003)

    Plotting from the viewers
    The plotting module from micvu and xgbrvu was broken. This is now fixed. Reported by Advance Reproductions.

    Log File
    The program will not show warnings for mass gerber commands. Requested by IBM Japan.


    v1.93     (01/12/2003)

    Multiple 274X files concatentated together
    The Mitani files, i.e. the 274X files that seem to have been concatenated together into a single file so that they contain multiple mass parameter sections are now supported. This class of file is now scanned and rewritten so that there are no dcode conflicts. This happens very seemlessly and only when needed. Dcode remapping is reported in the log window. It will create a temporary 274X file with a name of the form _.art.

    274X files with drawn macro
    274X files that contain MACROs that are used for drawing are not supported. The scanner detects this and issues a message to this effect. The offending dcodes are reported in the log window.

    Log File
    Added information to the log window indicating whether or not ARCS have been segmented. This appears together with the "Arc Resolution" and "Arc Sag" parameters in the BENCHMARK section of the log window as shown here. It is my sense that you should make use of the Arc Sag parameter TOGETHER with Arc Resolution. This will make for the smallest files while not losing any precision.

    Small Arcs
    Arcs with width that have a radius that is less than the width were not handled correctly. This is now fixed.


    v1.90a     (7/24/2002)

    Arc Interpolation
    Bug report from IBM in Japan. Polygon fill boundary with short arcs and large radius was not handled properly - the program created a bowtie in the .la file.
    This problem is fixed.


    v1.90     (4/3/2002)

    POIN Support for line/arc data
    gbr2mic now supports POEX/POIN (paint/scratch) data whether the Gerber data is in Polygon mode or just made of lines and arcs.


    v1.89     (11/29/2001)

    Thermal support
    The thermal MACRO conversion problem reported by IBM/Yasu.

    Large radius arcs
    Large radius arcs are now supported, i.e. GERBER circular commands where the radius exceeds 2^32 nanometers. This problem was reported by Advance.


    v1.88     (7/10/2001)

    Gerber format support
    The current version now will import the original file with 4.6 FORMAT with a warning with respect to the FORMAT statement. The GERBER viewer (xgbrvu) still requires a legal FORMAT statement (3.6 is OK), i.e. no more than 8 "1/2" digits.
    In order to effect these changes the gbr2gdxm engine (GERBER -> GDX engine) and the gbr2mic shell had to be modified.
    This version now includes the solaris version of our most current RS274X importer rs274xjb.


    v1.82     (3/20/2000)

    Composite polygon direction
    v1.71 addressed a composite polygon direction bug. There was one case involving arc (circular) data that was not addressed properly. This has been fixed in v1.82. In v1.71 this remaining case manifested itself as a polarity reversal for polygons that included arc data. If this same arc data was "segmented" then the reversal problem would disappear.

    Problem with boundaries with more than 4096 vertices
    A bug was introduced with large vertex count in v1.71. This problem manifested itself in boundaries with vertex counts greater than 4096 vertices.

    Non supported 274x commands reported in log file
    Nonsupported 274X mass parameters are reported in v1.82. When 274X data is imported, a file called "unsupport.lst" is created in the working listing the nonsupported items. The gbr2mic shell addes this info to the log file along with hints as to what these mass parameters might be.



    v1.71     (12/9/1999)

    Translation Speed Up
    For Gerber files with polygons with 4000+ vertices, translation time is reduced. This version no longer cuts polygons into smaller pieces for translation. A test file that required 80 mins. to convert with version 1.70 now converts in 8 minutes.

    Fix Composite Polygon Direction Bug
    The computation of direction (CCW, CW) for composite polygons - an internal polygon database type composed of lines and arcs - was buggy leading to the wrong polarity on the photomask. This has been corrected.



    v1.70     (11/22/1999)

    No output for uppercase input file name
    If the Gerber input file had a name with all upper case characters, no output was generated. This has been fixed.

    Very Long Translation Time
    certain Gerber files required an extraordinary long amount of time to convert. This was corrected

    1. All custom apertures were booleanized before processing to Micronic output. Due to an algorithmic oversight this sometimes required an inordinate amount of time. In this version, the program first checks each custom aperture to determine if it contains a scratch operation and also if the aperture is used on a LPC layer. Apertures are only booleanized if both conditions are met. Further, the algorithm was corrected to make booleanization faster. Files which previously required more than an hour to process now run in a couple of minutes.

    2. Polygons with over 4000 vertices are cut into smaller pieces with a variable number of vertices. The amount of time necessary to perform this cut varies greatly depending on the intial "guess" at the cut point. Gbr2mic now picks a much better "guess" greatly reducing the time required to cut large complex polygons. Files that previously required 40 minutes to process now process in one or two minutes.


    v1.60     (11/05/1999)

    Jumped from 1.56.

    Custom Aperture for RS274D Gerber Input
    Users can specify custom apertures for RS274D Gerber input. All definitions of custom apertures are provided in a text file by the user. The syntax of the text file should follow that of RS274X macro definition.

    The file is provided and specified as the Custom Aperture file in the Configuration dialog box. GBR2MIC will treat this in the same way as a RS274X custom aperture definition.

    Maximum Number of Vertices for Boundaries
    The upper limit has been increased from 4096 to 250K. (This has been accomplished by adding a new routine to the processor that breaks complex polygons into smaller ones who do not exceed the 4096 limit)

    Micronic Aperture File to Artwork Format
    Xaptgen has been updated to read the Micronic aperture format file and convert it to Artwork's apt file format.

    POEX/POIN emulation for RS274D files
    Ver 1.60 supports POEX/POIN paint/scratch definitions for RS274D apertures. Please note that the polygon rules that apply to the FIRE 9000 also apply here:

      1. All scratch polygons must immediately follow their parent fill polygon
      2. All scratch polygons must be completely surrounded and may not "touch" their parent polygon.
      3. Both parent and scratch polygons must be simple and closed.

    v1.56     (10/11/1999)

    Output Resolution
    Database resolution increased from 100nm to 1 nm.

    Cleaner MIC Output
    The MIC output has been improved to eliminate redundant LAYER and CELL calls. The output formatter now runs about 10% faster.


    v1.54     (08/26/1999)

    Command Line Input Specified
    When a command line input gerber is specified (-274x), this version does not pop up the main Gbr2mic motif windows.

    Negative Image Border
    Added this control to File/Preferences/Options.

    RS274D Aperture File
    Older versions would remove the aperture file even if the input Gerber are RS274D format. The aperture file will not be removed if input are RS274D.

    Removing Rs274mac File and GDX File
    This version only removes the rs274mac.x file for the specific translation. It does not do a remove rs274mac.* under batch mode.
    This version also removes the GDX file right after it is used by Gdsx2mic, instead of waiting til the end of the translation. This version also has the fix to keep the GDX file when both "Keep GDX temporary file" and "Remove various temporary files" are turned on.


    v1.53     (08/06/1999)

    Arc Segmentation On/Off Toggle Added
    A toggle for the segmentation of arcs has been added at Micronic's request. Apparently certain functions of the new rasterizer cannot support data with arcs - hence the need for arc segmentation.

    Added Support for RS274X command IPNEG
    The polarity reversal command, IPNEG, is supported by creating a user defined frame as the first dark layer and reversing polarity of all subsequent layers. User can define the margin between extents of his data and the frame.

    Updated 274X Import Routine
    Incorporated all updates made recently in the RS274X import and scanning routine.

    Improved MICVU
    improved the new MICVU adding with layer and composite viewing support

    Fixed Problems with MIC 1.5 Formatter
    All formatter (LA) issues have been resolved for MIC 1.5. There are no more errors reported from mictest syntax checker. There were issues in regard to MIC BLOCK LAYERS, MIC CELL INFO, and MIC ARC DATA. These have been fixed.


    v1.26     (04/21/1999)

    Incremental Gerber Data
    Older versions would treat incremental gerber data as absolute data even if users specify incremental in the Configuration. This has been fixed.

    RS274D Gerber File
    Older versions might generate an error message "xxx.vu: No such file or directory" in the log file occasionally and would not generate an Micronic output. This has been fixed.

    Also added helpful hints to tell users that 1 and only 1 merge output is needed to translate RS274D gerber file. Older versions would not generate any output or warning/error message is a merge output is not specified.


    v1.25     (02/26/1999)

    Windows Position
    1.22 and 1.24 would not remember the windows position correctly once a while. This has been fixed.

    Multiple Processors
    This version has the feature of using multiple processors for translation. Access the feature through File | Preferences |Memory...

    MDA Input Gerber Files
    When activated by product number 1351, Gbr2mic will take MDA input gerber files. It is recommended to run MDA translation using the GUI. Auto batch mode does not support MDA format. MDA is not officially supported by GBR2MIC as it does not support all MDA commands.


    v1.24     (02/24/1999)

    Translation Engine
    Improved reporting and booleanizing.

    Error Report for Gbr2mic.bat
    This version preserves the .erv file for viewing potential errors when translation is done using gbr2mic.bat batch run.


    v1.22     (02/22/1999)

    Batch Mode Warning
    Generating multiple batch files before translating might cause a problem of corrupting custom aperture information files "rs274mac.*". This version warns users if they try to generate more than 1 batch before translation.

    Auto Run Translation
    When specifying input gerber file in RS274X format, -auto will generate a batch file and launch the translation automatically. Without -auto, only the batch file will be created. These 2 auto batch modes always use the startup directory as the working directory. Together with the newly added script gbr2mic.bat, users can use Gbr2mic to translate a list of RS274X Gerber files automatically.

    1. Run Gbr2mic one time to configure the necessary settings. e.g ArcSag, Translation memory...
    2. Make a new directory, then make a copy of the RS274X gerber files to be translated to this new directory. RS274X files default to use .art extension.
    3. Run gbr2mic.bat.
    If any custom changes are necessary, users can make a local copy of gbr2mic.bat and make changes to this script.


    v1.21     (02/12/1999)

    Launch Formatter
    This version launches the formatter gdx2mic with input file in .vu extension instead of .gds.

    Batch Translation
    Starting this version, all translations are done in a batch file fashion. A batch file will be created and then the batch will be executed even in non batch mode. The behavior of batch mode and auto RS274X mode stay the same.


    v1.20     (01/28/1999)

    Batch Translation
    Starting this version, all translations are done in a batch file fashion. A batch file will be created and then the batch will be executed even in non batch mode. The behavior of batch mode and auto RS274X mode stay the same.

    Batch Mode
    This version pops up a message box to notify users that a batch file is generated.

    Auto Use Previous Configuration
    Added this setting for users to use previous configuration for the last program run so that they do not need to go through the Configuration and Aperture steps, they can go directly to Translate after selecting Gerber files. In this mode, the Configuration and Aperture buttons are disabled to remind users this mode is set. This mode only applies to RS274X Gerber file. Access this mode via File | Preferences | Options.

    Frame Size
    Frame size must be within 500 to 1500.

    Temporary Files
    Added control to remove .job, .apt, .cfg, .gdx and rs274mac.* files when exiting and/or selecting another gerber file(s). In batch mode, this is done in the batch file.

    ArcRes

    This version saves ArcRes setting to the aperture as ArcRes2. So that Xgbrvu and Gbr2mic have it's own separate ArcRes setting.


    v1.16     (01/13/1999)

    Jumped from 1.14.
    Benchmark Report in Log File
    This version adds a summary of the translation to the end of the log file. In general the Log file has been greatly enhanced so that timing and file size at each major module is clearly defined. Cookie Cutting
    This version only performs cookie cutting when required. It knows that a cookie cut is only required where there is scratch data. So a preliminary check is done on scratch layers to determine which frames must be cookie cut. This can significantly reduce the amount of processing for files where the scratch data only covers a small percentage of the overall image.


    v1.11     (12/18/1998)

    Sliver-like Data No Longer Dropped
    Data was being droppped by the formatter in trying to eliminate artifacts from the output stream. Code incorrectly misidentified narrow slivers as being zero area data. This was fixed.

    Frame Appear Solid Even Where Scratch Data Appears
    Scratch data was being dropped which resulted in solid frames. The cookie cutter routine was not called for all frames in which data to be cookie cut crossed several frame corners. This was fixed by resetting a flag at the appropriate place.

    Internal Error
    Boolean operations appeared to be not working correctly as a re-necklacing routine created boundaries inconsistent with a vertex count. This was fixed.



    v1.10     (12/15/1998)

    Very Large File Support
    In exploding the Gerber database, the resulting flat file could be very large and could not be loaded with full buffering into GDSXMIC. Now if the file is too large it loads without buffering, otherwise the file is loaded into memory as before. The maximum file size parameter is determined by the Maximum Translation Memory field in the File | Preferences| Memory.| Frames | Options pulldown.



    v1.09     (12/08/1998)

    Multi CPU Support
    Version 1.09 can take advantage of multiple CPU's. The user can set the number of CPU's to use via the dialog:

       File | Preferences | Memory | Frames | Options.

    Batch Mode Now Calculates Total Time
    This version reports total translation time also when batch mode is on.

    Fixed Licensing Bug in Batch Mode
    Version 1.08 would not release the license if Auto Batch Mode and -batch are used together. This has been fixed.



    v1.08     (12/02/1998)

    RS274D Input Files
    This version works for RS274D input files with 1 and only 1 composite output on the input files. Older versions would generate translation problems if translation is started without going into the Merge dialog. This has been fixed.

    Automatic Batch Mode
    This version allows user to specify RS274X input gerber file from the command line to run the translation automatically. Syntax is:

    $   gbr2mic gerberfile.gbr -out:output.la -274x
    
    If you only want to create the batch file and not actually start the translation process you should use the -batch command.

    $   gbr2mic gerberfile.gbr -out:output.la -274x  -batch
    
    the gbr2mic -h option now includes this command.

    Translation Time Report
    Version 1.08 reports translation time including the first stage of translation. Previous versions would generate a time without the first stage of translation.

    Time is now reported in the following format:

    Times: elapsed: 0(min.) 1(sec.) total: 0(min.) 7(sec.) Wed Dec  2 19:23:19 1998
    
    This is reported for each stage of the translation. Elapsed time represents time elapsed up to that point. The total time at the end of the log file represents the total time for the whole translation and should be used for benchmarking purposes.

    Control Dialog (Button Box)
    This version will bring up the Control Dialog to the top if the main shell Gbr2mic gets the focus again. In earlier versions the control dialog (button box) might be hidden behind the log window.

    Error Report
    This version eliminates duplicate errors on the same vertex in the log file that is read by Micvu.

    Working Directory
    To set a fixed directory where all output will be generated (temporary files and/or output files):

    1. Set the flag:
    
                    gbr2mic.RememberWorkingDir:      1   
    
    in $HOME/gbr2mic.Xdefaults.
    
    
    2. From within GBR2MIC use the  File|Preferences|Working Directory
       dialog to select the desired directory for output.
    
    
    To unset this feature, set the flag:
    
                     gbr2mic.RememberWorkingDir:      0 
    
    
    Note: the space between the the colon (:) and the value 1/0 must be a TAB.
    
    

    v1.01B     (10/09/1998)

    Frame Size
    Added frame size control for translation. This may be useful on files that are very dense. We will do further work to determine how the frame size affects speed and accuracy of the resulting MIC file.

    MDA Format Gerber File
    This version does not include MDA support but it will be available in the future as a special option.

    Maximum Layers
    the maximum number of layers has been increased from 10 to 1024 in order to attempt to accomodate certain 274X files that use large number of paint and scratch layers. (Example submitted by Micronics for Unipac).

    Reduced Memory Footprint
    Some test files were locking up due to insufficient RAM. By changing the relationship between certain parent and child processes we were able to reduce the amount of RAM needed.

    Fixed Output Error in MIC 1 Format
    Corrected an error where some polygons were output with the incorrect rotation resulting in clear polygons when a dark polygon was expected. (L04.ART test file)

    Improved Boolean Routines
    This version has a signficantly improved positive boolean (i.e. a routine that decomposes overlapping positive polygons) over version 1.00. Files that would previously hang now run to completion. However we still see some incorrect output in the benchmark files. Most effort is now focussed on getting the last 5% of the test cases to produce correct output.

    Radically Improved 274X Import/Parse Routine
    The previous parser/importer for RS274X was written using AWK; on large Gerber files speed became a very serious problem. A new importer was written in C with extensive I/O buffering; a 16Mbyte 274X file that required 6 minutes to import into GBR2MIC now imports in 3 seconds. (The same import C code is now incorporated into XGBRVU also....)


    GUI Improvements

    File Selection Dialog
    When selecting RS274X or MDA gerber files, the selection box is changed so that only a single file can be selected. The selection no longer implies that more than one such file can be processed at a time.

    Disable Select Aperture Dialog
    If RS274X or MDA file is selected, Select Aperture will be disbled because no such aperture file need be selected. Previous dialog could have been confusing to users.

    Enable Gerber Viewer Button
    If RS274X or MDA type file is selected the Gerber Viewer button is immediately enabled so the file can be viewed.

    Added Remove Overlap Option
    Added the option to Remove Overlap. This boolean function removes any overlapping parts of positive polygons. Such removal is an essential part of paint and scratch - even on a single layer design overlap removal may be of value to avoid problems later on if the data is merged with data from other files.

    RS274D Merge Control Added the required dialog/menu so that multiple RS274D files could be merged either as paint (positive) or scratch (clear) layers. Also controls the output file name(s).