kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Cirilo Bernardo <cirilo.bernardo@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Wayne,

 There are 2 parts to this:

1. Have a suitable OCE build on Windows and OSX that we can put the
3D OCE plugin into the main branch. This plugin will always be a
conditional compile of course since there is no sense in forcing all
users to have OCE if they don't need it. The reason for putting the
3D OCE plugin into the main branch is so that it doesn't remain just a
little-known third party add-on. From the installer point of view, we can
provide general users with a second installer which would install OCE
and the plugin so anyone who needs it can simply add it on.

2. STEP export. I imagine a large number of professional users will
require STEP export, so we need it at some stage in the future.
I imagine it would only take me a few days to add code to pcbnew
to provide an Export function. The reason I haven't done this is that
we cannot do this in a modular fashion at the moment. If someone
wants STEP export then they will have to recompile KiCad with that
option. On our end we would have to provide 2 KiCad installers: one with
OCE and the STEP export and one without. If the export tool can be
kept separate, as in a dynamically loaded plugin, then users can add
STEP export when they need it via a much smaller installer.

There is one compromise I can think of which would allow us to
add STEP export in the short term. I can add code to search for
the STEP conversion tool when pcbnew starts; if it is found then
a menu item is added and if the tool isn't found then no menu item
is created. This would make it possible to install OCE and the
export tool using a second installer without installing a specially
compiled version of KiCad. In this situation the export tool can also
be moved into the KiCad main branch and can be distributed in
the same installer as the 3D OCE plugin. That way anyone who
requires MCAD can simply download and run this installer. For
people who build from source, all these tools will be available
once they install OCE and compile kicad with a flag to build
the components which depend on OCE.

- Cirilo

On Tue, Aug 16, 2016 at 3:52 AM, Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

> Cirilo,
>
> I'm not sure what you are asking.  Ideally, any conversion tool such as
> STEP would be part of Pcbnew where a simple export->step menu entry
> would be available.  Users generally prefer this to running and external
> tool.  What is the end goal of this?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Wayne
>
> On 8/14/2016 11:45 PM, Cirilo Bernardo wrote:
> > Hi Folks,
> >
> >  Thanks mostly to nickoe we have been able to build the
> > OCE-based 3D plugin for visualization of STEP (and IGES) files on
> > Windows. I believe that regardless of the availability of some form
> > of OCE on Windows, it is best if we distribute a known good version
> > of OCE which has been built with gcc.
> >
> >  Back in May I also received some tips on building the plugin for
> > OSX: https://github.com/cbernardo/kicad_oce_3D/issues/1
> >
> >  However I have been advised that, as in the case of Windows, it
> > is probably best if we provide our own OCE as part of the
> > installer.
> >
> >  There is still some cleaning up to do with regards to getting a
> > Windows build but I believe Nick has sorted out all the biggest
> > problems.
> >
> >  We still need a volunteer to do some work to get an OSX build
> > of OCE and the 3D plugin, and from there I can put the 3D plugin
> > *and* a kicad_pcb to STEP converter into KiCad. (Any
> > volunteers?)
> >
> > Currently the 3D plugin can be found here:
> > https://github.com/cbernardo/kicad_oce_3D
> >
> > The kicad_pcb to STEP converter is here:
> > https://github.com/cbernardo/kicad2mcad
> >
> > The PCB to STEP converter is currently a stand-alone tool
> > since integration as a plugin to KiCad requires the implementation
> > of a PCB API and I just haven't got time to work on that at the
> > moment.
> >
> > - Cirilo
> >
> >
> >
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