How to Reverse Engineer PCB from Gerber

While working with “Altium Designer”, we have received many questions from our users.

We will answer the questions with high user attention

Create a PCB file from the Gerber file.

Gerber files can make PCB reverse engineer. Note that if the board has any viAs. This means that it is more complex than single-layer wiring. You must provide at least two Gerber files: one for the top layer and another for the bottom layer and an NC Drill drill file (ASCII).

All Gerber layers must be assigned a suitable layer type in the CAMtastic document for PCB Clone. You can try doing this assignment in CAMtastic by matching Gerbers’ extensions with what’s listed in the Layer Types Detection Template; However, you need to check the Layers Table for completeness and accuracy. The mechanical layer should be set to Temporary.

Once all the Layers have been correctly assigned, you should check the Layers Order Table to make sure the boards are stacked in the correct order.

The completion of the above operations is conducive to the development of the next work. That is, the drilling Layers are grouped in the Layers Sets Table. If the entire circuit board is used through hole technology. The only thing that needs to be defined is the set of all layers, and this step can even be skipped. But if the board contains blind holes and/or buried holes. You must specify each drill set separately. Associate the corresponding NC Drill file and select all layers that this drill set will pass through.

At this point, you can extract a netlist from the CAMtastic file. Because after extraction, the system will complete the network tracing from one layer to another according to the layer stacking and drilling pair set you provide. If the IPC netlist file is also included in the Gerber and NC Drill files, the original network name can be recovered. The IPC netlist also distinguishes vias from free pads in the new PCB file.

At this point, you can extract a netlist from the CAMtastic file. Because after extraction, the system will stack and drill pairs set according to the layers you provide. Tracing the network from layer to layer. If the IPC netlist file is included in the Gerber and NC Drill files, the original network name can be recovered. The IPC netlist also distinguishes vias from free pads in the new PCB file.

All splitting planes must be defined through closed multisegment lines on the internal power layer. Islanded planes can convert their boundaries to closed multisegment lines by concatenation. But split planes that share their contours with other split planes or pullback lines along the edges of the board must be redrawn. CAMtastic Export to PCB does not support nested planes (for example, islands in the split plane), but Altium Designer’s PCB editor does. You just need to reassign the correct network to the islanded split plane after you finish exporting from CAMtastic.

In summary, we can use CAMtastic’s Export to PCB function. PCB reverse engineering to create a circuit board very similar to the original one. When we rebuild a brand new board, there’s still some manual work involved; For example, when replacing a primitive with an encapsulation, simply copy and paste the primitive tuple into the PCB library, and then replace the existing encapsulation with the new one. In addition, if necessary, the Layer Pairs in the Layer Stack Manager need to be redefined manually.

The following can provide useful information:

The simplified process is as follows:

File ▸ New ▸ CAM Document

File ► Import ► Gerber(s)

File ▸ Import ▸ Drill (view drill file)

If a drill file is not available, a drill file can be created by placing a via hole on the new PcbDoc and then exporting it as an NC drill.

Tables ► Layers (assign layer types)

Tables ► Layers Order (Make sure logical and physical layers are in the correct order)

Tables ► Layers Sets (make sure the drilling span is shown here)

Tools ▸ Netlist ▸ Extract

File ▸ Export ▸ Export to PCB

If you are working with a wrapper Gerber, you can try opening it in “Altium Designer”, and do: