Gerbtrace

A standalone, open-source Gerber file viewer and comparison tool by Newmatik GmbH.

View and compare Gerber PCB files directly in your browser or as a native desktop app. No uploads, no server — everything stays local.

Web App: gerbtrace.com
Desktop Downloads: GitHub Releases

Features

Viewer Mode

• Import Gerber file packages (ZIP or individual files)
• Auto-detect layer types from filenames
• Toggle layer visibility with color controls
• All visible layers composited on a single Canvas 2D view
• Pan/zoom with mouse wheel and drag

Compare Mode

• Import two Gerber packages side by side
• Automatic layer matching with manual override
• Identical-file detection (SHA-256 hash)
• Side by Side — synced pan/zoom
• Overlay Toggle — blink between versions
• Pixel Diff — red (removed), green (added), gray (identical)
• Text Diff — line-by-line Gerber source comparison

Desktop App (macOS & Windows)

• Native app built with Tauri 2
• Automatic updates via GitHub Releases
• Window state persistence (size, position)
• Available as .dmg (macOS) and .msi / .exe (Windows)

Installation

Web

Visit gerbtrace.com — no installation required.

macOS

1. Download the latest .dmg from GitHub Releases
2. Open the .dmg and drag Gerbtrace to your Applications folder
3. Launch from Applications

Windows

1. Download the latest .msi or .exe installer from GitHub Releases
2. Run the installer
3. Launch Gerbtrace from the Start menu

The desktop app checks for updates automatically on launch and notifies you when a new version is available.

Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+
• Rust (for desktop app development only)

Getting Started

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Start web development server
npm run dev

Visit http://localhost:3000 in your browser.

Desktop Development

# Start Tauri development (launches native window with hot reload)
npm run tauri:dev

# Build desktop app for your current platform
npm run tauri:build

Build for Production

# Generate static web app
npm run generate
# Output: .output/public/

Tech Stack

Component	Technology
Framework	Nuxt 4 (SPA mode)
UI Library	Nuxt UI 4
Desktop	Tauri 2
Gerber Parsing	Custom RS-274X / Excellon parser
Rendering	Canvas 2D
ZIP Handling	JSZip
Text Diff	diff
Local Storage	Dexie.js (IndexedDB)

Architecture

Gerbtrace is built as a static Nuxt SPA (web) and a Tauri desktop app that bundles the same frontend. Collaboration features are backed by a self-hosted Supabase instance.

High-level components

flowchart TD
  Browser[Browser_SPA] -->|HTTP| WebStatic[StaticHosting_DO_Spaces]
  Browser -->|HTTPS| Api[Supabase_API_api.gerbtrace.com]
  Browser -->|WSS| Realtime[Supabase_Realtime]

  Desktop[Tauri_Desktop] -->|loads| Frontend[Nuxt_Static_Frontend]
  Desktop -->|HTTPS/WSS| Api
  Desktop -->|updates| GithubReleases[GitHub_Releases_Updater]

  Api --> Db[(Postgres)]
  Api --> Storage[Storage]
  Api --> Edge[Edge_Functions]
  Realtime --> Db

Loading

Gerber rendering pipeline

flowchart LR
  GerberText[Gerber_Drill_Text] --> Tokenizer
  Tokenizer --> Parser
  Parser --> AST
  AST --> Plotter
  Plotter --> ImageTree
  ImageTree --> Canvas2D[Canvas_2D_Renderer]

Loading

The parser pipeline converts raw Gerber text into a typed AST, which the plotter transforms into an ImageTree of drawing primitives. The Canvas 2D renderer draws these primitives to an HTML5 Canvas element.

Packages + TPSys model

Built-in packages live in public/packages/ (JSON). Team packages are stored in Supabase (team_packages.data as JSONB) and merged into the in-app package library. Export to .pck uses the TPSys serializer in app/utils/pck-serializer.ts.

Collaboration + sync

• Auth: Supabase Auth (GitHub OAuth and email/password flows).
• Teams / projects: stored in Postgres and shared via Realtime subscriptions.
• Presence: tracked via Realtime channels.
• Files: stored in Supabase Storage; metadata is tracked in Postgres. For deployment details (web, desktop release, and the droplet API), see DEPLOY.md.

Supported Formats

• Gerber RS-274X — Extended Gerber format (.gtl, .gbl, .gts, .gbs, .gto, .gbo, .gtp, .gbp, .gm1, .gko, .gbr)
• Excellon Drill — NC drill files (.drl, .xln, .exc)

Release Process

Releases follow a tag-based workflow:

1. Update the version in:
   • package.json
   • src-tauri/tauri.conf.json
   • src-tauri/Cargo.toml
   • nuxt.config.ts (runtimeConfig.public.appVersion, used by the web footer)
2. Commit the version bump
3. Create and push a version tag:

   git tag v1.x.x
   git push origin v1.x.x

4. GitHub Actions automatically builds macOS and Windows installers and creates a GitHub Release
5. Add release notes to the GitHub Release (see style guide below) and publish

Release notes

Every release includes short, user-oriented release notes on the GitHub Releases page. Notes focus on new features and bug fixes — no emojis, no internal details. The same text is shown in the desktop app's "What's New" dialog after an auto-update.

Web deployment happens automatically on every push to main via DigitalOcean Spaces (see deploy.yml). API deployment (Supabase migrations + edge functions to the droplet) happens automatically on every push to main that changes supabase/** (see deploy-supabase.yml).

Updater signing (critical)

• The updater public key in src-tauri/tauri.conf.json (plugins.updater.pubkey) must match the private key configured in GitHub secrets.
• Required secrets:
  • TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY
  • TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD
• Use scripts/setup-github-secrets.sh to set secrets from a local key file. The password is read from the TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD environment variable.
• If desktop builds fail with incorrect updater private key password, update/rotate the keypair and secrets, then rerun the workflow.

Release verification checklist

• Verify deploy.yml succeeded after merge to main.
• Confirm the web footer version matches the release version.
• Verify build-desktop.yml succeeded for both macos-latest and windows-latest.

CI/CD

Workflow	Trigger	Action
ci.yml	Pull request to main	Type check + build verification
deploy.yml	Push to main	Deploy web app to DigitalOcean Spaces (gerbtrace.com)
deploy-supabase.yml	Push to main on supabase/** changes	Deploy Supabase migrations + edge functions to droplet
build-desktop.yml	Tag push (v*)	Build macOS/Windows apps + create GitHub Release

Sample Data

The project ships with sample Arduino UNO Gerber files for demo purposes. Click "Try a Sample" on the landing page to explore.

Acknowledgments

• tracespace (MIT) — Gerber parser architecture inspired by tracespace's lexer-parser-plotter pipeline
• Ucamco — Official Gerber Layer Format Specification
• Arduino — Sample project uses Arduino UNO open-source hardware design

Contact

• Website: newmatik.com
• Email: software@newmatik.com
• GitHub: github.com/newmatik/gerbtrace

License

MIT — Newmatik GmbH