kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Cirilo Bernardo <cirilo.bernardo@xxxxxxxxx>]

Just an update to my previous message - I will implement IGES
from scratch. The OpenCascade IGES implementation, like
the STEP implementation, does not allow for the creation of
correct hierarchical assemblies. The consequence of that defect
is that every instance of every solid feature will be represented as
a top-level entity. This will cause most if not all MCAD software to
produce many thousands of native parts files for even trivial
STEP/IGES assemblies. Even a simple board + QFP180 would be
at least 182 files, which is absolutely not acceptable. Mechanical
assemblies can be complex enough without trivial parts flooding
the working directories.

- Cirilo


On Wed, Feb 18, 2015 at 10:03 AM, Tomasz Wlostowski <
tomasz.wlostowski@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> On 17.02.2015 22:30, Cirilo Bernardo wrote:
> > Hi folks, I'm just letting everyone know that I've started development on
> > a framework for the IGES model specification (and I've also purchased
> > a copy of the STEP Model and Resources Library).
> >
> > Although we ultimately want to use STEP since this can eventually tie
> > in to PSI-5, I believe IGES will take much less time to implement and
> > is a quicker path to providing KiCad with a vital tool for industry.
>
> Cirilo,
>
> Do you plan to implement IGES support for Kicad from scratch? Because
> exporting board geometry into either IGES/STEP using OpenCascade is IMHO
> quite trivial and the only thing it depends on is just the 3D plugin
> support...
>
> Tom
>