It will import Gerber D, Gerber 274X, HPGL, AutoCAD DXF, Excellon drill data, Bitmap or TIFF file formats. ViewPlot – A free downloadable Gerber viewer from Roneda PCB Design Consultancy ( ). Has plenty of easy to use tools across the toolbar. Allows you to view Gerber files and will read DPF, Fire 9000, NC info and HPGL files. GC-Prevue – A free download from GraphiCode ( ). I find the mentor user interface somewhat clunky on a PC. This will allow you to view layout files designed using PADS2007.x or PADS 9.x. PADS Viewer – Is downloadable from the Mentor web site ( ). Layers may be hidden or visible, but it's a multi-step process to do so. All the usual tools are available, like “home”, zoom, and so forth.
#Mentor pads viewer free download full#
Hovering over a trace will highlight it throughout the layout, which helps a lot when trying to identify the paths of individual nets.Īltium Designer ( ) is also a favorite and is a subset of the full Designer PCB and schematic design environment. It's easy to make layers visible or hidden, pan around, and zoom in and out. This is one of my favorites and can import several different file formats. Gerbv – A free open-source Gerber viewer ( ). To run PC software, I use the Parallels virtual environment for the Windows OS.
Most of these viewers are designed to run on a PC, but I found one that will run on the Mac platform, which I prefer using. Fortunately, most vendors of board design software also provide free “viewers” that will allow the display of color-coded individual or multiple layers of the traces and planes. Obviously, purchasing PC board design software from multiple vendors is beyond my budget. These board layout files are usually saved in multiple file formats using many common CAD design tools, such as Mentor, Altium and others. Often, I can perform the review right on the client's premises, but I also can perform the reviews remotely from the home office, which saves the client money. As an EMC consultant, I have a constant need to review other company's PC board layouts during my design reviews.