kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Cirilo Bernardo <cirilo_bernardo@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Folks,

 I've got the IDFv3 code exporting the actual board outline and cutouts; please feel free to make up dummy PCBs with non-rectangular outlines and drill holes all over the place and email them to me so I can have reasonable certainty that I've got it right (I've only tested on a few crazy outlines).  While I'm checking this work, if you also want a STEP/IGES/whatever/SolidWorks2014 PART rendering of an actual board, just let me know and I'll do it.

 The export code doesn't assume the 90 degree angles imposed by the drawing tools, so even if you hand-edit a file to create the lines and angles, the export code should get it right.

 At this point the result is an IDF file with a board outline and cutouts only. I'm hoping this can be included in the mainstream once I clean things up and prepare the patches.  The next step would be to create an IDF library file which just has component bounding boxes extruded to a fixed height; this would be extremely crude but does not require any changes to other code or file formats. If there are any comments on what people would actually want in the IDF library file, let me know.

 Also, the 'minimum x' in the case of S_ARC in specctra_export.cpp SPECCTRA_DB::fillBoundary( ... ) can optimized (there is no need for the numerous calculations and iterations through the arc). If there is any wish to optimize, let me know and I can do the work and come up with a patch.  Overall I suspect optimization doesn't really matter unless you have numerous arcs in the outline.

- Cirilo