kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Oliver Walters <oliver.henry.walters@xxxxxxxxx>]

Cirilo,

Unless we made script generation of models completely idiot proof, I think
that requiring another niche toolset would only serve to increase the
already high barrier to entry for new users.

The 3D scripts require, currently:

- Freecad
- cadquery plugin

Plus the scripts themselves are a bit opaque to use.

I think that if we are going to distribute recipes for models rather than
the models themselves, that should be integrated into KiCad?

You're the expert on the 3D code, is there any possibility that we could
have a 3D wizard that operates in a similar way to the footprint wizard?
Then it would be fantastic to have the repo contain scripts as you say.

Connectors are an obvious use for parametric scripts as it takes lots of
space to store each of hundreds of variants.

Oliver


On 25 Feb 2017 8:44 AM, "Cirilo Bernardo" <cirilo.bernardo@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sat, Feb 25, 2017 at 1:12 AM, Simon Wells <swel024@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> why should packages be a subfolder of modules, it seems that they
> don't really belong in there and should be directly in the share/kicad
> folder
>

That would certainly be my preference. Since the root of the 3D models is
determined by KISYS3DMOD and hasn't had a hard-coded relation to the
*.lib files for quite a few years now, I would move it out of 'modules' and
into
a 'packages3d' directory. Looking at the structure on github,  'packages3d'
is currently the only directory within 'modules' so the modules directory
seems silly.


> On 25 February 2017 at 02:00, Adam Wolf <adamwolf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
>> Yeah, let me clarify--by "wouldn't be a problem" for OS X, I meant "if
>> you did it without saying where it's going and when it's changing", it
>> would break the OS X package, but the change would only take a minute
>> or two, and would be quickly testable.
>>
>> On Fri, Feb 24, 2017 at 6:57 AM, Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
>>> On 2/24/2017 3:45 AM, Oliver Walters wrote:
>>>> Hi everyone,
>>>>
>>>> Recently I raised this issue:
>>>>
>>>> https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/msg27922.html
>>>>
>>>> There were some good responses, thanks for the input.
>>>>
>>>> First task is going to be moving the 3D models, as this will be
>>>> significantly easier.
>>>>
>>>> e.g. something like GitHub.com/KiCad/packages3D
>>>>
>>>> To this end, I'd like some further information from those in the know:
>>>>
>>>> A) is there any impediment to having the KISYS3DMOD envvar point to
>>>> somewhere different? e.g. ./KiCad/share/packages3D/
>>>
>>> I believe you mean share/kicad/modules/packages3d.  Why would change the
>>> install path?  Irregardless of what repo the 3D models are in, they
>>> should always get installed in this location.  Where else would be
>>> appropriate to install them?  Changing this path would most likely break
>>> everyone's 3D viewing experience.
>>>
>>>> B) To the package managers, how much effort to package 3D models from a
>>>> separate repo?
>>>
>>> I'll leave this to our package devs.
>>>
>>>> C) to the docs maintainers, would there be much to change if we
>>>> redirected the 3D repo?
>>>> D) Generally, what other considerations would be required?
>>>>
>>>> Essentially, if I made this change right now without telling anyone,
>>>> what would I break?
>>>
>>> I'm sure all of the package builders.  You would need to coordinate this
>>> change with the package devs.
>>>
>>>>
>>>> As a side note there have been some great recent contributions to the
3D
>>>> data, with a fair bit of momentum over at the forums.
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>> Oliver

Some thought is needed about how to handle the 3D model repository in the
future. In the past we only had VRML which was pretty but next to useless
for mechanical verification. Now we have IGES and STEP in all the gloriously
ugly MCAD color schemes. Personally I only use IGES and STEP, but some
people like to have a STEP model for mechanical verification and a VRML
model for eyecandy. At the moment various scripts written to work with
Maurice's StepUp tool are the only scheme I'm aware of which make it easy
for people to have a STEP file while having improved material appearances
applied to the surfaces in a corresponding VRML file. I suspect it is
inevitable
that we start to have a diverse collection of 3D model sources:

a. old VRML models with no corresponding MCAD model
b. IGES/STEP models from manufacturers with no aesthetic coloring
c. script-based parametric generators which produce STEP models and
corresponding VRML models with aesthetic material appearances

For (c) it really makes no sense to store the models themselves because
these can really waste storage space. My preference is for the scripts to
be made available for various tools (StepUp being the only one so far)
and for the end user to install the tools.

- Cirilo

>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
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