Editing some Text on a Gerber file

[harrydawson500]

Hi. Hoping someone can help.

A friend has asked me if I can open some Gerber files for him for a PCB design and edit a simple line of white text.

He has supplied me with a zip file which contains the following:

.apr

.DRL

.DRR

.GBL

.GBS

.GD1

.GTL

.GTO

.GTP

.GTS

.REP

I have uploaded these as Gerbers into Eagle one by one on various layers. The layer that the text appears on is on the .GTO file. 

My questions are: Are there going to be issues importing these files if they were generated in say, Altium rather than eagle? And If I do what I'm trying to do (upload the .GTO file, and change the text and exporting it. Does it matter which Layer I do this on? I did a quick google on what a .GTO file is and it appears to be for Gerber Top overlay information used in Altium. I see Eagle doesn't have "top overlay" as an option.

I don't want to send him a file if it is going to mess up the CAM processing when he sends it for manufacturing.

He is unable to send it back to the person who generated it to edit as he has recently passed away.

I hope someone can get me on the right track!

Thanks heaps

Harry

[one-of-the-robs]

You can import Gerber files into Eagle but it's generally not a very useful thing to do as they only contain geometric information and nothing that would allow Eagle to do what Eagle is good at. To edit a Gerber file you're probably better using a dedicated Gerber editor, though I'm not sure I could name one to try - plenty of viewers but few editors, as befits a file format used only for final rendering. That said, if all you need is to remove lines, gerbv will do that for you.

I don't think Gerber files include text. The text is rendered as lines and those lines are what the Gerber contains. Certainly that's true of Eagle's generated files but I think it's a constraint of the format.

The file that Altium calls "top overlay" is, I think, the "top silk screen" made up (usually) of the tPlace and tNames layers in Eagle terms.

[noraini.jTQVFT]

Hi,

Im also facing issue like you.If you already find the solution,feel free to share to me.

Thanks.