Invert Gerber

Invert Gerber swaps the copper and the empty areas of a Gerber object inside a box or a reference area. Copper becomes empty, and the empty area becomes copper. The tool creates a new Gerber object and leaves the source object unchanged.

Where to find it

• Menu: Plugins > Invert Gerber.
• Keyboard: Alt+G.
• The panel opens in a tab next to Project and Properties. The tab shows the plugin name.

Screenshot placeholder: images/Invert-Gerber-1.png — the Invert Gerber panel with the Source, Reference and Parameters frames visible.

Quick start

1. Under Source, keep Object and select the Gerber object in the Object selector.
2. Keep Reference as Itself. The area is the bounding box of the source.
3. Set Margin to the distance from the edges of the source (mm or inch).
4. Keep Lines Join Style as Square.
5. Click Invert Gerber.

Screenshot placeholder: images/Invert-Gerber-2.png — the source copper and the inverted result on the canvas.

Parameters

Source

Parameter	Description	Selected by default
Source = Object	Inverts the Gerber object chosen in Object.	Selected by default
Source = Selection	Inverts every selected Gerber object. Each one goes into its own new object.	—
Object	The Gerber object to invert. Shown when Source is Object.	—

Reference

Parameter	Description	Selected by default
Reference = Itself	The area is the bounding box of the source object, grown by Margin.	Selected by default
Reference = Object	The area is taken from another object. Shows the fields below.	—
Type	The type of the reference object: Gerber or Geometry. Shown when Reference is Object.	Gerber
Reference object selector	The reference object. It has no label. Shown when Reference is Object.	—
Area = Box	The area is the bounding box of the reference object.	Selected by default
Area = Exact	The area is the exact shape of the reference object.	—

Parameters

Parameter	Description	Selected by default
Margin	Distance by which the area avoids the edges of the Gerber object. Range: 0 to 10000 (mm or inch).	0.1 mm
Lines Join Style = Rounded	The lines in the outline are joined with an arc between two lines.	—
Lines Join Style = Square	The lines meet at a 90 degree angle.	Selected by default
Lines Join Style = Bevel	The lines are joined by a third line.	—
Invert Gerber	Creates the inverted Gerber object.	—
Reset Tool	Resets the tool parameters to their default values.	—

Screenshot placeholder: images/Invert-Gerber-3.png — the Reference section set to Object with the Area combo visible.

Advanced

• The inverted copper is the area minus the source copper. The area is the box (or reference area) grown by Margin.
• For a Reference of Object, a Type of Geometry lists the Geometry objects in the reference selector.
• The Margin and Lines Join Style values set the corner shape of the outline. The Rounded join gives smooth corners.
• The tool stops with a message when the source has no bounds, the area is empty, or the copper covers the whole area.
• The command-line version is invert_gerber. See Tcl Command Reference.

See also

• Gerber Object
• Etch Compensation
• Copper Thieving
• Tcl Command Reference
• Tcl Scripting
• Preferences Plugins