Graphical User Interface

InkRaster can be run from either the command line or a graphical user interface. The graphical user interface is shown below:

Fields and Parameters

Input - the Gerber file to be rasterized.

Work Dir - a directory to hold temporary files created by the rasterizer

Output - the directory and name of the output bitmap file.

Log - the directory and name of a log file that summarizes the rasterizer's operation

Thrnum - the number of concurrent threads the rasterizer may use.

Keep Tmp - when completed, do not erase the temporary files created during the raster process.

Silent - do not send status and reports to the display.

Tiff Packbits - output bitmap will be monochrome TIFF format with packbits compression.

BMP - output format will be monochrome BMP, no compression.

Reversal - fills in the "field" as opposed to the digitized data.

Inverse - changes black pixel to white (not really useful for inkjet)

DPI(X/Y) - dots per inch, settable separately in X and Y

Coverage (Fill/Edge) - pixel coverage (in precent of a droplet diameter). First parameter is for the fill region and second parameter is for the edge of each polygon.

Compensation (Fill/Edge) - an offset applied to the boundary for the fill pixels (first parameter) and for the edge pixels (second parameter). This is intended to keep the final polygon or trace dimensions within their original design boundary.

Unit - specify the unit to use for all command line parameters that take a unit.

Droplet - droplet diameter - used to compute placement density and offset.

Min Feat - the smallest input file feature dimension to try to capture. Features smaller than this may be discarded during the rasterization process.

Window - a user defined window for the rasterization. If not specified the program computes the extents of the Gerber data.

Border - tbd

Margin - a distance from the window edge (either the automatic computed extents or the user defined window) which will be added to the bitmap.

Transformations

Mirror X,Y - mirror the input data along X axis and/or along the Y axis.

Rotation - rotate the data (uses anchor point if specified; otherwise 0,0)

Scale (X/Y) - scale the input data; independent scaling is possible in X and Y. Scales about 0,0 unless an anchor point is specified.

Offset - shift or offset the input data by the specified amount in X and Y.

Anchor - an anchor coordinate used when mirroring, rotating or scaling.

Advanced Settings Dialog

Optional Arguments - custom arguments that get passed to the command line. Normally reserved for debugging.

Input Viewer - path and executable to a viewer for Gerber data.

Output Viewer - path and executable to a viewer for the bitmap data.