kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Cirilo Bernardo <cirilo.bernardo@xxxxxxxxx>]

At the moment the plugin manager will only check system dirs or in the case
of a local install, dirs relative to pcbnew.  There is currently no scheme
for specifying additional user directories to search for plugins.

- Cirilo

On Tue, Aug 16, 2016 at 10:05 AM, Simon Wells <swel024@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Does your/the plugin handler just search for plugins in system dirs or
> does it also look in user-based plugin directories?
>
> On Tue, Aug 16, 2016 at 11:45 AM, Cirilo Bernardo
> <cirilo.bernardo@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > 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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> >> >
> >>
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> >
> >
> >
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>