kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Mário Luzeiro <mrluzeiro@xxxxx>]

Hi Maurice,

> Altium 3D viewer is more interactive than kicad 3d-viewer...
> It has the ability to move the 3D models directly in the viewer

I hope kicad will become more interactive related with 3d-viewer, but it will be hard to get something as Altium. It may need changes in the way kicad is internal connected and some big changed in 3d-viewer to be able to pickup 3d models  .. lot of work would be involved, so probably is something to add to wishlist ... into the bottom :P

With the 3d model cache (cirilo is developing) and the refactoring of 3d-viewer (with some cache ideas I have in mind), reload the board with some change in 3d-viewer will be fast.. in a useful time.


"and can check a enclosure clearance or even collisions dinamically..."

>From my perception of some little discussion here in the mailing list, kicad will not implement clearance checks on 3D models.. or if will, we are very far away from that day.
Maybe technical is not that hard, but if we consider it to a "formal test" then lots of attention and caution are need in development. Special the maintenance is hard.

So anyone who want formal check (enclosures) should follow with export kicad data to be loaded by a MCAD 3rd part sw.
Or for those who want just make a "eye check" can use your stepUP script to bring step to 3d-viewer ;)


> Mario Luzeiro (which is a (co)author of the 3d-viewer) told me that
> probably in the next 3d-viewer it will be possible to turn ON and OFF
> some modules (e.g. mechanical parts or enclosures) to let the designing
> process easier, in a way that at the moment I do in my build of kicad
> pcbnew with 'virtual models'

There are no issues in the 3d-viewer to support that (in fact you did it already) but it implies an addition of a flag somewhere.
You may want to request that wish it here.
What I may suggest was that since Cirilo is making developments close related with properties of the 3d models (position and transformations, etc) so that would be a flag to add in that ui tool, but to store that flag somewhere, someone need to approve it I guess.

Mario

________________________________________
From: Kicad-developers [kicad-developers-bounces+mrluzeiro=ua.pt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] on behalf of easyw [easyw@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 29 October 2015 21:42
To: Stefano Rossi
Cc: KiCad Developers
Subject: Re: [Kicad-developers] future developments: shared libraries and dynamic plugins

Hi Cirilo and Stefano,

Altium 3D viewer is more interactive than kicad 3d-viewer...
It has the ability to move the 3D models directly in the viewer and can
check a enclosure clearance or even collisions dinamically...

But you can have some similar features also in kicad if you e.g. import
your enclosure in 3d-viewer and place it beside the pcb...
here an example of the board with assemblies with and without the
enclosure visible in 3D
https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/pngmiJa_et4ei.png
https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/pngBxSJOlsdSm.png

Mario Luzeiro (which is a (co)author of the 3d-viewer) told me that
probably in the next 3d-viewer it will be possible to turn ON and OFF
some modules (e.g. mechanical parts or enclosures) to let the designing
process easier, in a way that at the moment I do in my build of kicad
pcbnew with 'virtual models'

to do an ECAD MCAD collaboration with an accurate representation in
kicad VRML 3d-viewer, you may need to generate your VRML models from
STEP or 3D mechanical models e.g. through FreeCAD

Moreover you can do a bidirectional collaboration with the ECAD sw
(kicad) and the MCAD environment (e.g. FreeCAD or whatevar MCAD you
have) through my kicad StepUp script
http://sourceforge.net/projects/kicadstepup/

If you export the kicad pcb in IDF through Cirilo routines (already
available with the RC 'stable' release) and launch the script, you can
obtain a 3D model of pcb and assemblies to be used in MCAD sw for a more
precise enclosure clearance and collisions check.

here an example of board and assemblies exported by the script to MCAD
for mechanical enclosure design
http://www.eevblog.com/forum/open-source-kicad-geda/kicad-photo-realistic-3d-rendering/?action=dlattach;attach=175778;image

If you are interested, I have also done a library of 3D parametric
models to be used for a real 'WYSIWYG' designing process...

Please feel free too contact me if you need more information about the
script

Maurice