kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Cirilo Bernardo <cirilo_bernardo@xxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----

> From: jp charras <jp.charras@xxxxxxxxxx>
> To: kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Cc: 
> Sent: Thursday, December 5, 2013 3:12 AM
> Subject: Re: [Kicad-developers] Development of IDFv3 export
> 
> Le 04/12/2013 16:40, Wayne Stambaugh a écrit :
>>  On 12/4/2013 10:23 AM, Lorenzo Marcantonio wrote:
>>>  On Wed, Dec 04, 2013 at 09:24:15AM -0500, Wayne Stambaugh wrote:
>>>>  What is missing from the board file format that is required to 
> export to
>>>>  IDFv3?  None the the other exporters required any changes to the 
> board
>>>>  file format.  I'm not thrilled about the idea of changing the 
> board file
>>>>  format just to satisfy exporting to another file format.
>>> 
>>>  I already did some feasibility study a while ago, nothing is needed
>>>  (except some way to convey height information for the modules, if
>>>  wanted). Also if he picks the segment in the board instead of taking 
> the
>>>  bounding box he will a) handle the more-common-than-you-think case of
>>>  nonrectangular boards and b) not need the 0.1mm reduction hack.
>> 
>>  I didn't think any changes were required but I'm no IDFv3 expert.  
> I
>>  would prefer to see the actual board outline implemented before
>>  committing this feature to KiCad.  More than 50% of the boards that I
>>  design are *not* rectangular so this would be a show stopper for me.
> 
> Extracting actual board outlines is now very easy.
> see void EDA_3D_CANVAS::BuildBoard3DView() which uses them to show the
> 3D view of the epoxy.
> 
> The requirement is (obvioulsy): a closed valid polygon exists.
> 
> But a valid polygon (needed for 3D viewer and specctra export) can be
> created only if a full board outline exists and was created using the
> same grid for all lines or arcs.
> Therefore a footprint which includes a partial board outline (i.e.
> having edges cutout) will certainly break this requirement.
> This is the reason why edge cut outlines are not allowed in footprints.
> 


Thanks, that explanation is very helpful. Although the component edge cutouts can certainly be implemented, I doubt it's a commonly used feature. I'll forget about that use case then.

I'll look at the BuildBoard3DView(); thanks for the tip.

- Cirilo