kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Cirilo Bernardo <cirilo.bernardo@xxxxxxxxx>]

OK, with the feedback from Maurice and Mario I have retained the Inline{}
option but
changed the behavior:

+ If "Copy 3D model files" is activated then Inline{} is used, otherwise a
monolithic
file is written. This removes the previous behavior that absolute paths can
be used in
Inline{}; the absolute paths are bad anyway since they differ depending on
the OS
and VRML files cannot be shared easily. With this new behavior it will be
easier to
share VRML files which use Inline{}.

+ In the case of a monolithic file, DEF/USE will be employed. This
typically makes
the file smaller, especially if complex components have many instances. If
people
want an option to not use DEF/USE let me know and I can add Yet Another Flag
to the export UI.

The rework is *mostly* done; I only need to add a few routines to create
the board
model in the monolithic file (basically pass existing tesselation data and
color data
to the KiCad scenegraph library).

Any more comments/suggestions?

- Cirilo


On Fri, Sep 16, 2016 at 9:20 AM, easyw <easyw@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi Cirilo,
> I found inline{} VRML export option very useful and powerful...
>
> it allows an easy post elaboration to i.e. change color to pcb board,
> traces and solder mask with some macro or tweak the VRML models to add
> texture to the VRML result for an improved visualization or even add a vrml
> model inline{} to a 3D part to include some external extra objects not
> present in the pcbnew...
>
> I use Blender to import kicad VRML exported boards and I use also material
> properties without any issues with the actual develop build branch...
>
> So in case of a rewriting of the VRML exporter, I would consider very
> useful to leave at least an option to conserve the actual inline{}
> structure.
>
> Thank you
> Maurice
>
>
> On 16/09/2016 00:25, Cirilo Bernardo wrote:
>
>> Hi folks,
>>
>>  Since the merge of the new 3DViewer the VRML Export routine has not
>> been able to include x3d data and the few x3d users out there have not
>> been very happy about this. However, the scenegraph library developed
>> for the 3D plugin system can easily write monolithic files which include
>> visualization data for all file formats supported by plugins. This means
>> that VRML Export can now be modified to either (a) continue to use
>> inline{} when a file is created and when copying files the scenegraph
>> library is used to write VRML model equivalents of other file formats
>> (x3d, STEP, IGES, IDF) or (b) create a monolithic file with all models
>> defined internally and reused wherever possible. Personally I would
>> prefer (b) since that would eliminate some options in the Export routine
>> such as "Copy Model Files" and would also eliminate the problem of
>> inline{} compatibility with some viewers. There may be problems with
>> DEF/USE within some programs like Blender but I can always add an
>> option to not reuse definitions (Blender's VRML code has so many
>> problems though that I doubt this would help).
>>
>> Any thoughts before I go ahead and rework the VRML exporter?
>>
>> - Cirilo
>>
>>
>>
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