freestompboxes.org

So what do you guys use whan youre blending the top and solder side of pcb's for ease of tracing?

GIMP or pretty much anything? I know, total noob q.

I use Paint Shop Pro. Get them round about the same size, paste a mirrored component view over the track side as a new layer, and then alter the transparency of the new layer till it looks good.

You can also play with blending modes to highlight the different tracks. Try a difference mode and the parts where the cross one other will become more obvious.

photofiltre. free version. easily done .. paintshop/photoshop/gimp et al confuse this fella too much.. not interested in a learning curve thanks.

Gracias

Paste each image in its own layer. Adjust the opacity of the top layer down so that you can see "through" it. You can also adjust contrast or brightness (or use Adjust>Levels in Photoshop) to make things easier to see.

Gimp can do all of that.

I use Gimp for that. in addition to what has been said (import both images as layers, flip one, resize/rotate to get both sides aligned, adjust transparency of the upper one) i like to alter the color in order to distinguish better what is on which side. A proper "levels" balance helps a lot in distingushing details.

Then highlighting the traces on nex layers can help in knowing what is traced and what is not. I use the pencil, with [Shift] to make straight lines, and [Ctrl] to make them horizontal, vertical or 45°.

A couple of examples :

download/file.php?id=4058[/img]

To guesstimate the tracks under components, think of the shortest path the track will take. And don't forget vias !
An application schematic for the device helps a lot too.