Homebrew PCBs

> Russell wrote:
> Most "real" machines read G-code, that has
> been generated from the original CAD data
> such as DXF (gerber is G-codes).

I Assume "real" means real milling machine /
drilling machine or something specific to PCB
or engineering.

Real plotters use HP/GL
Real printers use postscript or PCL
Real photo-printers (often) use TIFF

My photoplotter will also be used to make photo
tools for screen printing.  That will be
inherently raster stuff rather than bitmaps.

Someone else has written the software to
convert gerber to bitmaps so I dont have too :D

> By converting all external data types to one
> format suited to the machine, machine
> complexity is minimized.

There are lots of different standards out
there.  I would have liked to use one of
them rather than make up my own.

> Even if it could read tiff, that would
> mean that any other data type would need
> to be converted to tiff.

Yes - but by some software someone else
has written and that is also probably
already availabe cross-platform.

You do understand the concept and
advantages of making the machine just a
terminal that accepts a file via x-modem
don't you ?