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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

   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.

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

$   gbr2mic gerberfile.gbr -out:output.la -274x  -batch

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

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.

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....)

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).