About PCB Tools
===============


PCB Tools provides a set of utilities for visualizing and working with PCB
design files in a variety of formats. The design files are generally referred
to as Gerber files. This is a generic term that may refer to
`RS-274X (Gerber) <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerber_format>`_,
`ODB++ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ODB%2B%2B>`_ ,
or `Excellon <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excellon_format>`_ files. These
file formats are used by the CNC equipment used to manufacutre PCBs.

PCB Tools currently supports the following file formats:

- Gerber (RS-274X)
- Excellon

with planned support for IPC-2581, ODB++ and more.

Image Rendering
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.. image:: ../../examples/cairo_example.png
   :alt: Rendering Example

The PCB Tools module provides tools to visualize PCBs and export images in a
variety of formats, including SVG and PNG.




Future Plans
~~~~~~~~~~~~
We are working on adding the following features to PCB Tools:

- Design Rules Checking
- Editing
- Panelization