kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[easyw <easyw@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi to all,

some other guys, like me, has developed external tools to improve the 
MCAD exports of board and component
http://sourceforge.net/projects/kicadstepup/
I started years ago to improve myself the 3d rendering, before the 
actual 3D realistic rendering was available in the main branch
https://a.fsdn.com/con/app/proj/kicad-3d/screenshots/demo-3D-cs.jpg
https://sourceforge.net/projects/kicad-3d/
and with that project there was a first attempt to export 3D models to 
3d MCAD through external software (kicad, Meshlab, FreeCAD)

At the moment the new 3D ECAD to MCAD tool (kicad StepUp) is light, 
doesn't touch kicad code, and it works with the RC 'stable' release
It could be even work as a plugin invoked from python console...

Nobody asked me to do it, I just developed that because I needed to 
export my artwork to MCAD engineers and that feature was missing in 
kicad; and I wanted to share my result to kicad community

The tool is still not part of Kicad, it is just a personal development
but I know that the MCAD exporting feature is quite important for 
enclosure design and ECAD/MCAD collaboration
Other commercial software put a lot of focus on that side, and ask to 
the customer extra fee to be able to have this feature for their design
http://a.fsdn.com/con/app/proj/kicadstepup/screenshots/hackrf-one-VRML-vs-STEP.jpg

I discover myself that with this tool I take less time to produce my 
equipment, particularly regarding mechanical/enclosure designing aspects
An also I can get 3D models directly from manufacturers and use them in 
kicad

I'm waiting for the new 3D-viewer, and I will be happy to have a direct 
3D mechanical viewer, exporter included into kicad itself, but for now I 
just enjoy my external script and I'm pleased to know that there are 
other kicad's users and devs that are enjoying too...

Maurice

On 04/11/2015 22.46, Mário Luzeiro wrote:
> Hi Mark, Martin,
>
> "~mrluzeiro/kicad/kicad_new3d-viewer is the ray tracing viewer. This is
> not a refactor. Its a different direction to improve rendering."
>
> My branch is actually / technical a refactoring. There is very little from the old-3d-viewer, there are only some legacy names that I keept but the structure class and implementation is totally new.
>
> At this moment only a render target is implemented (raytraced) but the design is flexible to develop (and I have it planned) new render targets (eg rasterized openGL / GPU)
>
>
>
> "Two of them are named "refactor" and the third one is called "new". I wonder how these branches could be merged together."
>
> My personal preferences are related with 3D rendering. So I started on that. Also I redesign the widget related classes to handle different render targets and improve the modularity.
>
> Then Cirilo (on his branch) have other interests and he is focused on improve of the 3D model path searching / assignment, 3d models cache, 3d models plugins.. etc
>
> We (me and Cirilo) had some discussions in the background and (I hope) we are in tune! (We also keep the mailling list updated)
> There is hope that I will use the improvements and managers developed by Cirilo and Cirilo is hopping to use (one of) my render target to display 3D models while it is assigning 3d model files to footprints modules.
>
> If I am not mistake, Cirilo have other proposes for his refactor that is to get this 3D model files information to improve the MCAD exports and also to add more support for 3D model files (plugins, IGS, STEP?..etc)
>
> This will take some long time...
>
> Cheers,
> Mario Luzeiro
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