Browse The Most Popular 35 Pcb Open Source Projects. Awesome Open Source. Awesome Open Source. Combined Topics. Java(tm) WebStart based converer and viewer of RS-274X (Gerber) PCB description files to HPGL/2 format. Downloads: 0 This Week Last Update: 2016-07-27 See Project. With one platform, you can get more work done — from anywhere, on any device. Get latest updates about Open Source. Exporting the Gerber files Gerber files are what you send the PCB manufacturer to make your PCB. Select plot from the menu Check these layers, which are typically what is needed (unless you need a solder stencil as well) Enter “gerber” here so the files. How to Open PCB File Types with Altium Designer’s PCB Viewer Check out the Altium Designer PCB viewer free download-It’s the best option for accessing PCB layouts in the EDA file format. The viewer takes all formats within the output files.

Open Source Pcb Files

Article translated by Google, and edited in English by Ben Jordan.

More and more engineers and PCB designers are getting involved in the rising tide of open source hardware projects. There are some really cool ones out there, and in this blog, FAE and consultant Petr Tošovský from Retry S.R.O. in Czech Republic highlights a few that caught his eye, and I ask the important question at the end - so read and answer with your thoughts!

When you’re starting out with new electronics design software, or even beginning the adventure of electronics design and engineering, it’s very beneficial to examine the work of others in reference designs. One can obtain an idea of what can be achieved and how. Just as often, one gets inspiration for solving certain issues, like how to route DDR on the minimum number of layers, or how to fanout a BGA. Open source PCB design software often provides the help and inspiration needed - while also serving the world with new products that benefit everybody. So I wanted to showcase a few open-source software projects, all done using Altium Designer®, for the user community.

Altium Designer is a professional commercial design environment and it is, from this point of view, under-represented in the Open Source community. Recently more and more open source projects are being released where the design was done in Altium Designer. Often these are projects with complex hardware, where the purpose of the design is development in other environments, such as Linux-based software applications. Some are projects developed in commercial companies who have decided to release their hardware openly, or where the design engineers are given the freedom to design and share Open Source Hardware in Altium Designer (OSHw) and design files in support of their commercial research. Here are just a few OSHw projects, created in Altium Designer, which you may be interested in taking a look at:

iMX6 Rex is a processor module sporting a 1.2 GHz Freescale iMX6 CPU (Dual or Quad-Core), including DDR3 memory, and high-speed signal connectors for a wide range of interfaces. It’s all done on a Printed Circuit Board the “size of a credit card”. The iMX6 Rex has been designed, tested and the results documented thoroughly on the developer’s web site and blogs, so I can easily draw value out of the PCB design process and experience. There is an associated Development Baseboard also which brings out all the various IO interfaces with the appropriate connectors. It forms a powerful computing platform including PCIe, SATA, HDMI & LCD port, Hi-Def Audio, Ethernet, USB, serial port, SD-Card, and user IO. The design projects and documentation for the iMX6 Rex and the development baseboard are available after a free account sign-on. Download the source data here.

RHINO, which stands for Reconfigurable Hardware Interface for computiNg and radiO, is a relatively large platform for developing software-defined radio applications. The design centers around a combination Xilinx Spartan 6 FPGA and an ARM Cortex A8 processor from Texas Instruments. The analog part is connected with two FMC expansion connectors. The PCB includes DDR2 and DDR3 memory, 10Mbps Ethernet, USB 2.0 and 10 Gbps communication interface, and there are a couple of tutorials available to help users get started using the BORPH Linux port. You can obtain the hardware design sources from the project SVN repository.

Turris. Project Turris is an Internet of Things (IoT) project in the truest sense. The heart of the Turris project is a home WiFi router and GigE switch, which analyzes in detail all the transmitted and received data, searching for behaviors that indicate an attack on your home network. For this reason, the router has more computing power than is usual for these devices. Over time, the Turris router devices across a network share threat analysis data and build a mesh database that makes it fast and easy to detect threats, converging to a very secure network. The PCB contains several switching power regulators, DDR3 SODIMM support, and uses a powerful Freescale P2020 1.2 GHz processor. Triple Diversity WiFi (up to 803.11n) is implemented using a commercially available mini PCI-express card. Hardware source files are available for download at the Turris hardware page.

Novena took the project aim to be the first totally OSHw laptop. The parameters include an iMX6 CPU (same as iMX6 Rex), built on the ARM Cortex A9 running at 1.2GHz, a slot for DDR3 memory, two USB 2.0 ports, a mini PCI-express slot, a Full HD display connected via LVDS, GigE network ports, HDMI and Hi-Def audio. The primary objectives of the specification were the selection of with openly available schematics documentation, and the easy support of Open Source operating systems. The motherboard also has a Spartan 6 FPGA for hardware acceleration of graphics and high-performance computing applications. As at May 2014, the Novena project is in the final phase of its crowd-funding campaign, which has already surpassed the required funding limits and is likely to propel Novena into mass production. Design source files can be downloaded here.

CERN - The CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire) is a research center famous for its particle accelerators. Using Altium as one of many tools in such a design environment, CERN electronics engineers use it in a number of projects, many of which are available at the Open Hardware Repository (below are just a few):

• FMC ADC 250M 16B 4CHA - data source in SVN repository
• SIMPLE VME FMC Carrier (SVEC) - data source in SVN repository
• CONV TTL BLOCKING - data source in SVN repository

VUE32 is a universal control unit for experimental electric vehicles. This began as a student project focused on creating an electric car, and VUE32 was designed to play a critical role in ensuring contact between the sensors, controls and follow-up communications with the host computer. The main processor is a PIC32. The unit has four control outputs of up to 10A, and two up to 2A, with a total of 12 analog inputs. Communication is done via the CAN 2.0b and USB 2.0 ports. Download the source data here.

Should Altium Live be involved?

In addition to “formally open source” designs are those which have been publically developed utilizing Altium Designer tools. Among them, for example, are Red Pitaya or the ZedBoard. To make it easier to design these projects to popular and capable form-factors, the Content Store offers to its users a relatively large of template projects, including a standard board outline (with connectors) like PCI, PCIe, SODIMM, VME, QSeven etc.

The question we want to ask is, what does the Altium Designer user community think? Given the rising tide of open source in the hardware design world, would it be useful and beneficial to have a page on this site dedicated to open source content and community sharing?

Let us know what you think!

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Powerful PCB Design

What is a PCB file?

PCB file format was developed for purposes related to electronics. PCB is a text file that stores a project of printed circuit board. The solution guarantees proper board layout and connections between the board’s components.

Finished projects are then used in PCB manufacturing process. PCB files can be viewed and editied using dedicated applications, though users may encounter some format compatibility issues.

Program(s) that can open the .PCB file

How to open PCB files

If you cannot open the PCB file on your computer - there may be several reasons. The first and most important reason (the most common) is the lack of a suitable software that supports PCB among those that are installed on your device.

A very simple way to solve this problem is to find and download the appropriate application. The first part of the task has already been done – the software supporting the PCB file can be found in the table. Now just download and install the appropriate application.

Open Pcb File Ppt

Possible problems with the PCB format files

The inability to open and operate the PCB file does not necessarily mean that you do not have an appropriate software installed on your computer. There may be other problems that also block our ability to operate the Printed Circuit Board Format file. Below is a list of possible problems.

• Corruption of a PCB file which is being opened
• Incorrect links to the PCB file in registry entries.
• Accidental deletion of the description of the PCB from the Windows registry
• Incomplete installation of an application that supports the PCB format
• The PCB file which is being opened is infected with an undesirable malware.
• The computer does not have enough hardware resources to cope with the opening of the PCB file.
• Drivers of equipment used by the computer to open a PCB file are out of date.

If you are sure that all of these reasons do not exist in your case (or have already been eliminated), the PCB file should operate with your programs without any problem. If the problem with the PCB file has not been solved, it may be due to the fact that in this case there is also another rare problem with the PCB file. In this case, the only you can do is to ask for assistance of a professional staff.

Similar extensions

How to associate the file with an installed software?

Open Source Pcb Designs

If you want to associate a file with a new program (e.g. my-file.PCB) you have two ways to do it. The first and the easiest one is to right-click on the selected PCB file. From the drop-down menu select 'Choose default program', then click 'Browse' and find the desired program. The whole operation must be confirmed by clicking OK. The second and more difficult to do is associate the PCB file extension to the corresponding software in the Windows Registry.

Is there one way to open unknown files?

Many files contain only simple text data. It is possible that while opening unknown files (e.g. PCB) with a simple text editor like Windows Notepad will allow us to see some of the data encoded in the file. This method allows you to preview the contents of many files, but probably not in such a structure as a program dedicated to support them.