Gerber Viewer

Display Gerber PCB fabrication files in the Adom Viewer with an interactive layer-by-layer viewer. Supports all standard Gerber (RS-274X) and Excellon drill file formats. Renders SVGs server-side using @tracespace/core — no CDN dependencies at runtime.

What the user asked to view

$ARGUMENTS

MCP Tool

Use av_gerber_display to display Gerber files:

mcp__adom-viewer__av_gerber_display({
  directory: "/path/to/gerber-output/",
  title: "My PCB Board"
})

Or specify individual files:

mcp__adom-viewer__av_gerber_display({
  files: ["/path/to/board-F_Cu.gtl", "/path/to/board-B_Cu.gbl", "/path/to/board.drl"],
  title: "Selected Layers"
})

Parameters

Full Workflow: From KiCad PCB to Gerber Viewer

The most common workflow is exporting Gerbers from a .kicad_pcb file and displaying them:

Step 1: Export Gerbers via KiCad CLI Service

import { pcbExportGerbers } from '/home/adom/gallia/viewer/kicad-api-client.js';

const result = await pcbExportGerbers(
  '/path/to/board.kicad_pcb',
  '/tmp/gerbers.zip',
  {
    layers: 'F.Cu,B.Cu,F.SilkS,B.SilkS,F.Mask,B.Mask,Edge.Cuts', // optional filter
    drillFormat: 'excellon',
  }
);
// result: { outputPath, fileCount, files[] }

Step 2: Extract the ZIP

import { execSync } from 'child_process';
execSync(`python3 -c "import zipfile; zipfile.ZipFile('${zipPath}').extractall('${outputDir}')"`);

Or use Node:

cd /path/to/output && python3 -c "import zipfile; zipfile.ZipFile('/tmp/gerbers.zip').extractall('.')"

Step 3: Display in Gerber Viewer

mcp__adom-viewer__av_gerber_display({
  directory: "/path/to/output/",
  title: "Board Name"
})

One-Shot Script (recommended)

// node --input-type=module
import { pcbExportGerbers } from '/home/adom/gallia/viewer/kicad-api-client.js';
import { collectGerberFiles, renderGerberLayers, generateGerberViewerHtml } from '/home/adom/gallia/viewer/gerber-viewer.js';
import { writeFile } from 'fs/promises';
import { execSync } from 'child_process';

// Export Gerbers from KiCad
const zipPath = '/tmp/gerbers.zip';
const gerberDir = '/tmp/gerbers-out';
await pcbExportGerbers('/path/to/board.kicad_pcb', zipPath);
execSync(`mkdir -p ${gerberDir} && python3 -c "import zipfile; zipfile.ZipFile('${zipPath}').extractall('${gerberDir}')"`);

// Render and generate HTML
const paths = await collectGerberFiles(gerberDir);
const layers = await renderGerberLayers(paths);
const html = generateGerberViewerHtml(layers, { title: 'My Board' });
await writeFile('/tmp/gerber-viewer.html', html);

// Then display via: av_display_file({ file_path: '/tmp/gerber-viewer.html', title: 'My Board' })

Supported File Extensions

Viewer Features

• Single layer mode: View one layer at a time with click-to-select in sidebar
• All layers mode: Overlay all layers with adjustable transparency
• Layer visibility toggles: Show/hide individual layers via eye icon
• Color coding: Layers are auto-colored by type (red=top copper, blue=bottom copper, cyan=drill, green=soldermask, yellow=silkscreen, white=outline)
• Zoom/pan: Mouse wheel zoom, click-drag pan, fit-to-view button
• Layer sorting: Copper layers first, then outline, silkscreen, soldermask, drill. Empty layers are filtered out.

postMessage API (AI Control)

The viewer iframe supports these messages for programmatic control:

// Select a layer by index or name
{ type: "gerber_select_layer", index: 0 }
{ type: "gerber_select_layer", name: "F_Cu" }

// Switch between single and all-layers mode
{ type: "gerber_set_mode", mode: "single" }
{ type: "gerber_set_mode", mode: "all" }

// Set opacity for all-layers mode (0-1)
{ type: "gerber_set_opacity", opacity: 0.6 }

// Toggle layer visibility
{ type: "gerber_toggle_layer", index: 2 }

// Request current state
{ type: "gerber_get_info" }
// Response: { type: "gerber_info", layers: [...], mode, activeLayer, zoom }

Manual Rendering (without MCP tool)

If the MCP tool isn't available, generate and display manually:

import { collectGerberFiles, renderGerberLayers, generateGerberViewerHtml } from '/home/adom/gallia/viewer/gerber-viewer.js';
import { writeFile } from 'fs/promises';

const paths = await collectGerberFiles('/path/to/gerber-dir/');
const layers = await renderGerberLayers(paths);
const html = generateGerberViewerHtml(layers, { title: 'My Board' });
await writeFile('/tmp/gerber-viewer.html', html);

// Then use av_display_file to show it

File Locations

/home/adom/gallia/viewer/gerber-viewer.js     -- Core rendering engine (tracespace → SVG → HTML)
/home/adom/gallia/viewer/mcp/server.js         -- av_gerber_display MCP tool
/home/adom/gallia/viewer/kicad-api-client.js   -- pcbExportGerbers() for KiCad → Gerber export
/home/adom/gallia/viewer/registry.json         -- File type → skill mapping
/home/adom/gallia/viewer/viewer/index.html     -- Viewer dropdown entry (GerberView)

Troubleshooting