kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Mário Luzeiro <mrluzeiro@xxxxx>]

> I've been in contact with Cirilo from about 4 years now :) and I was asking exactly this feature... but that was so in very low priority (years!!!)

Damn it! You mean Cirilo took 4 years!! to attend your requests?! That guy must be very lazy!.. :D
I'm used to ask something and get it for free, impeccable, by the next day! (free shipping too!)


> if you see the mailing list a guy already suggested to export STEP using his code in 2013, giving also a STEP file as an example, offering to share it, but he was ignored
> https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/msg11409.html

I had a look and it was not ignored, Wayne reply and he was happy:
https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/msg11411.html
I don't know why it didn't follow
Probably now a good time to recall it since the kicad stable is out and I believe we can add new features...


> you may have forgotten the files I already shared with you ...
> https://sourceforge.net/projects/kicadstepup/files/prjs/HACK-master-R2.7z/download

Maybe Cirilo would like to have a look and compare, I dont have the plugin he is developing...


>> so I see nothing wrong with that and it does not do in any way an attack competition to your StepUP converter.
> me either, but I cannot understand why there is a trend against FreeCAD
> which is the only opensource MCAD sw robust and featured that can
> managed STEP import and export without any issues

Why do you say that is anyone (where?) against FreeCAD?

When you do some work, you have the main software (i.e: KiCad) and you can have multiple 3rd part softwares that can help you doing the job, special for open source softwares, it is natural to use multiple tools.

The thing is, here is the KiCad (software) developers mailing list :) So it is natural that we are more focused on KiCad development as the software. (On other side, the KiCad libraries have another mailing list... )
I dont know which department should be responsible for promote 3rd part tools (ok I know it is a bit mixed here on this mailing list) but maybe someone related with webpage and community should give more visibility to 3rd part tools.
Anyway, I guess this is the right place if there are technical discussions or technical help need!

Cheers!
Mario Luzeiro

________________________________________
From: easyw [easyw@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 08 March 2016 10:51
To: Mário Luzeiro; Cirilo Bernardo; KiCad Developers
Subject: Re: [Kicad-developers] 3D models: custom VRML export vs FreeCAD (OCE/Coin3D) VRML export

Hi Mario,
> I think it is subtended that Cirilo was comparing that with original FreeCAD VRML exporter
me too ... if you use FreeCAD i.e. 0.14 (two years old) you cannot
compare results as you couldn't from kicad revision 4022 and kicad now...
if you don't export the VRML file with the right representation in
FreeCAD you cannot compare results (i.e. at least you need to display
the model shaded before export it) ... etc...
Moreover there is also kicad StepUp VRML exporter which is optimized for
kicad and blender, with smaller size and easily parsing... but this is
another story :)
> Looks like Cirilo is trying to develop a 3d plugin for KiCad, this is a different process and it is ok to have different processes and they all coexist.
I will be very happy to see import and export STEP format in kicad...
if you look at kicad mailing list, yahoo etc. I've been in contact with
Cirilo from about 4 years now :) and I was asking exactly this
feature... but that was so in very low priority (years!!!)
then I developed kicad StepUp externally of kicad for the reasons I
already explained ....
if you see the mailing list a guy already suggested to export STEP using
his code in 2013, giving also a STEP file as an example, offering to
share it, but he was ignored
https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/msg11409.html
file stp model
https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/zipw8JoR_StIy.zip

> Maybe you can propose a STEP file to Cirilo to test instead? So you can both compare your results?
you may have forgotten the files I already shared with you ...
https://sourceforge.net/projects/kicadstepup/files/prjs/HACK-master-R2.7z/download
and that you tested with your 3d-viewer branch
https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/pngF6QWCF3eDp.png
https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/msg23622.html

this is a fully portable project with all STEP models coming from
FreeCAD (manually or parametric/script generated) and all VRML models
exported with kicad StepUp macro for a better file size and Blender
compatibility

> so I see nothing wrong with that and it does not do in any way an attack competition to your StepUP converter.
me either, but I cannot understand why there is a trend against FreeCAD
which is the only opensource MCAD sw robust and featured that can
managed STEP import and export without any issues
I think that FreeCAD is the only alternative to commercial MCAD that can
be used for MCAD designing, MCAD model creation in opensource environment

Maurice


On 08/03/2016 10.48, Mário Luzeiro wrote:
> Hi Maurice,
>
> I think it is subtended that Cirilo was comparing that with original FreeCAD VRML exporter, so I see nothing wrong with that and it does not do in any way an attack competition to your StepUP converter.
> Looks like Cirilo is trying to develop a 3d plugin for KiCad, this is a different process and it is ok to have different processes and they all coexist.
>
> Maybe you can propose a STEP file to Cirilo to test instead? So you can both compare your results?
> I could also suggest some very small VRML file output so you can share (with me!) and really have a look on its content.
>
> Mario
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Kicad-developers [kicad-developers-bounces+mrluzeiro=ua.pt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] on behalf of easyw [easyw@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: 08 March 2016 09:29
> To: Cirilo Bernardo
> Cc: KiCad Developers
> Subject: Re: [Kicad-developers] 3D models: custom VRML export vs FreeCAD (OCE/Coin3D) VRML export
>
> the problem with your comparison is a wrong way to export from FreeCAD...
> if you use kicad in wrong way you could also say kicad is useless for
> creating pcbs ...
> if you share a STEP model you have made, or just with public license I
> will make a comparison with that...
> I have many STEP models for a real comparison, I did MCAD libraries for
> MCAD collaboration with STEP and VRML models for kicad and they will not
> give any warnings, or bad lighting model for VRML .... but that would be
> on my point of view :)
> I would show you what can be done with FreeCAD and kicad StepUP on your
> side :)
> Maurice
>
> On 08/03/2016 10.14, Cirilo Bernardo wrote:
>> Unfortunately I can't share the STEP file since it is someone else's
>> proprietary data. But if you have a STEP assembly which we can all use
>> for a comparison of the different translators then we can do a test.
>>
>> - Cirilo
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 8, 2016 at 7:17 PM, easyw <easyw@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>> <mailto:easyw@xxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>>
>>      would you mind to share the step file for a real comparison?
>>
>>
>>      On 08/03/2016 09.04, Cirilo Bernardo wrote:
>>
>>          Hi folks,
>>
>>             I'd just like to share a comparison of the OCE VRML export
>>          from my
>>          visualization experiments vs the FreeCAD VRML exporter.
>>
>>          FreeCAD: file size ~28MB, >800 warnings about defects in the model,
>>             bad lighting model for VRML:
>>
>>          https://drive.google.com/open?id=0By_XTJN-s8aXNF8xZnZvRGU0amM
>>
>>
>>          Custom OCE export (via the scenegraph library from kicad 3D work):
>>          ~14MB, no warnings, default lighting as per VRML2 specification.
>>
>>          https://drive.google.com/open?id=0By_XTJN-s8aXVmRiSVFwYnNqZ1k
>>
>>          Original STEP file size: ~15MB
>>
>>          - Cirilo
>>
>>
>>
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