> > thank you everybody for your suggestions. wouldn't it be
> > nice if all layout
> > software talked to each other nicely? just another pipe dream!!
> >
> > Chris Hower
>
> It's funny you should mention "pipe", because if everything was text (as
it
> is quite often in the Unix world), we'd be able to *pipe* the files
through
> a script to convert from one type to another...
>
> Matthew van de Werken
My understanding is that this is basically what CAD conversion utilities do.
A text file in (produced by one CAD package) produces a text file out (for
use with another CAD package).
Theoretically, the input file and output file could both be binary in
nature. That said, the details of binary formats for CAD files are normally
proprietary to the company that produced the CAD application, and as such,
it is unlikely that any party would have knowledge of the appropriate
details for two different CAD applications. Hence the customary requirement
to export a text file from one application, and to import a text file into
the other application.
There is nothing to stop anyone who knows what they are doing from creating
their own CAD conversion utility or script. That said, there would typically
be assorted issues to consider, such as translating features which are
supported by one application but not the other. (For example, a text file
exported from PCAD (having a PDF extension in the past, if not still the
case) might contain pads using PCAD's Padstacks feature. How should such a
pad be handled if this file was then to be converted into a file which could
then be opened in Protel?) And the another issue is of course how much time
would be required to actually create such a script or utility.
The "Gerber file out - Gerber file in" approach is another possibility (if
the Gerber files can be imported by the destination application without too
much bother), and I have used this option myself on assorted occasions. It
requires more follow-up work, that would not be required in the event that a
proper converting script or utility is available, but typically still saves
some time in comparison with recreating a file from scratch.
Regards,
Geoff Harland.
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