By pass printer connection at start up

[a2retro]

It would handy for me to run a second copy of the application on a machine not connected to the printer in order to verify my gerbers and drill files. Could an option be added to bypass connecting to the printer in order to load and visualize files?

[Gary]

This would be excellent for students as well. I would like to be able to have them practice run through the software.

[udoru]

Great ideea also for me (in Brasov ROMANIA)

[AdrianS]

I would also like this functionality. Our engineers would like to be able to confirm their gerbers are compatible before giving them to somebody else to print. Right now, there is a prolonged back and forth trying to resolve gerber issues if the designer is not the one who will be printing the boards.

[cborn]

Our SmartScope does exactly that, running in simulation mode when there is no physical device connected, which can be very useful as suggested above.

If Voltera choose not to implement it in their software (best solution) it should be simple enough to create a pseudo machine on a virtual COM port, at least as far as getting to the accepting Gerbers stage.

[Fitzy]

Hi, new here. This all sounds very complicated. I just use gerbv to review my Gerber files and my friends use it, and it’s free.
If you want to treat yourself, consider http://mayhewlabs.com/webGerber/
which is also free. That one seems to have a problem with Drill files though, and doesn’t always display correctly. But gerbv.exe is great!

[jazozaya]

Hi everybody,

If you want to load your gerber files and bypass the USB connection, just triple click on the large white logo. You’ll be able to access all 4 procedures but you’ll eventually get stuck.

For example - the farthest you can make it in the Print procedure is the probing step.

[AlanDewey]

ahhh… I can’t give your post 10 likes…only 1.