README.md

gerber2blend

Copyright (c) 2022-2025 Antmicro

This is an open-source utility dedicated to generating 3D models of Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) in Blender (.blend) format. The tool uses Gerber (Gerber RS-274X) input files that are used for producing physical PCBs. This makes the PCB visualization independent from the software used for designing it. Currently gerber2blend supports Blender 4.5+.

Installation

Requirements

gerber2blend depends on the following packages:

• gerbv (recommended >=2.10)
• inkscape >= 1.2
• python3.11, pipx

Additionally to preview and modify the generated .blend file Blender 4.5 LTS needs to be installed.

Installation (Debian)

1. Install the dependencies:

   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt install gerbv inkscape python3.11 python3.11-venv pipx

2. Configure PATH:

   export PATH=$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH

3. Clone and install gerber2blend:

   python3.11 -m pipx install 'git+https://github.com/antmicro/gerber2blend.git'

Usage

Please check the gerber2blend documentation for more guidelines.

To show available functionalities of gerber2blend, run:

gerber2blend --help

For more information regarding Blender supported by the gerber2blend visit the Blender 4.5 documentation.

glTF generation

gerber2blend supports exporting PCB model to glTF format. To use that functionality you need KTX-Software and gltf-transform npm package in version 4.2.0 installed:

wget https://github.com/KhronosGroup/KTX-Software/releases/download/v4.4.0/KTX-Software-4.4.0-Linux-x86_64.deb
sudo dpkg --install KTX-Software-4.4.0-Linux-x86_64.deb
sudo apt install npm
nvm use 22
npm install -g @gltf-transform/cli@4.2.0 @gltf-transform/core@4.2.0 @gltf-transform/extensions@4.2.0 @gltf-transform/functions@4.2.0

`gltf-transform` requires Node version >= 22.

Licensing

The gerber2blend utility is licensed under the Apache-2.0 license.