Professional PCBs almost cheaper than making them at home

Step 13: View a Gerber file

The drill files can be viewed with a text editor.

The Gerber files can be viewed with a free Gerber file viewer. I went to the website above and installed Viewmate. It appears in the Start menu of windows as Start/Programs/Pentalogic. In Viewmate I clicked on File\Open and browsed to C:\Program Files\EAGLE-4.16r2\projects\RadioRepeater and at the bottom of the windows changed Files of Type to *.*. As an example this is the .sol solder side file

Comments

[abraxas2]

Again, a million thanks for your generousity in producing this fine tutorial. It's been a lifesaver !! One problem I am having at this point using both your tutorials, is that I am getting a solder image without pad holes for my components. They would be nice to guide my drill as I am making my own boards. THANK YOU !!!

[Dr_Acula]

Great to hear it is helping someone! Can you provide some more information about the solder image? There is the .sol file but there are lots of other files produced. Are you making your own boards or sending them off?

[abraxas2]

I'm making my own. I followed the instructions to a Tee. I did all the steps but when I view the resultant .sol file, all the pads are filled in. when I print that sol file, likewise, no holes.

[Dr_Acula]

The gerber files are for the fab house and splits up the board into lots of layers including the solder layer, top side, bottom side, text, and masks. So just bundle them up and send them to the fab house.

If you are making your own boards, then I think you need to print out the layers as a file/print rather than create gerber files.