kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[easyw <easyw@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Wayne,

I think it would be nice to have also a note on KiCad user manual about 
the external kicad StepUp exporter.

Please consider that to use this exporter, the users would need just a 
stable version of FreCAD (>=0.15) and a single python file ...
Everything is based on an assembler macro that can assembly STEP/IGES 3D 
models and the KiCad pcb board.
It can convert KiCad boards, with 3D wrl models, but it also support the 
conversion if the board has directly STEP models inside using the new 
OCE plugin.

I know that is an external solution to KiCad, but since one year from 
its first public release, many people (more than 8500) have downloaded 
and used it with very little issues.
Moreover it is usable also with KiCad 4.02 stable release, without any 
need to build from source.
Please have a look at this small video, to see how easy is to convert a 
KiCad board to STEP model
https://youtu.be/h6wMU3lE_sA
The demo project is a self contained KiCad project and can be tested 
just out of the box... unique requirement is a recent version of FreeCAD 
installed in Linux, Windows and OSX environments
https://sourceforge.net/projects/kicadstepup/files/latest/download

I have done also a quite big library of 3D parametric models that can be 
used directly as KiCAD 3D libraries
https://github.com/easyw/kicad-3d-mcad-models

I would be very pleased if my exporter would get a mention on the KiCad 
user manual as an external open source solution to MCAD conversion...

Please let me know if you may need any further details or info about 
this MCAD exporter

Thank you
Maurice

On 7/5/2016 10:13 AM, Wayne Stambaugh wrote:
> Funny you should ask Cirilo since your name came up about the 3D model
> plugins.  The current road map version 5 is published as part of the
> developer documentation which is available on the KiCad website.  In the
> road map there is mention of support for exporting to STEP and/or IGES.
> Any chance that you could provide a plugin for either one of these or
> both by FOSDEM 2017?  It would be a nice feature for users to directly
> export boards and footprint models to a format that can be used directly
> by FreeCAD and less than free CAD tools for mechanical design.  Maybe
> you could get some help from Mario and Maurice.  If you don't think this
> is possible, please let me know so I can update the road map.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Wayne
>
> On 7/5/2016 4:07 AM, Cirilo Bernardo wrote:
> > Is there a pre-commit version somewhere where we can see what's
> > on the roadmap?
> >
> > I want to work on a PCB API so that pcbnew importers/exporters
> > can be turned into plugins and I can add an MCAD exporter, but
> > given my free time and the size of the job I wouldn't expect it to
> > be ready for FOSDEM 2017.
> >
> > - Cirilo
> >
> > On Tue, Jul 5, 2016 at 5:55 PM, Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx
> > <mailto:stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
> >
> >      I spent much of yesterday discussing and finalizing the stable version 5
> >      road map with everyone here at CERN.  I will be committing the revised
> >      road map soon.  Before I do, I want to make sure no one is working on
> >      anything outside the road map that I do not know about.  If you are
> >      working on new features that are not in the version 5 road map, please
> >      inform me of what you working on and whether or not it will be ready to
> >      release by FOSDEM 2017.  If it will not be ready by then, please do not
> >      commit it to the product branch and keep your changes in you own
> >      development branch until after I create the stable release 5 branch on
> >      launchpad.
> >
> >      Cheers,
> >
> >      Wayne
> >
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