kicad-developers team mailing list archive

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

Orson,

Yes a decompression plugin would be a good addition to the
"download-as-needed" that Maurice mentions above.

On Tue, Nov 7, 2017 at 9:54 AM, Maciej Suminski <maciej.suminski@xxxxxxx>
wrote:

> On 11/06/2017 11:43 PM, Oliver Walters wrote:
> > Orson,
> >
> > That's a good idea, and I am actively investigating that. Check out
> > https://kicad.github.io - currently only symbols and footprints are
> there
> > but models are on their way. The scripts that generate that data use a
> very
> > heavy 7z compression.
>
> Great, just by browsing the site I got the impression the idea is worth
> pursuing.
>
> > However, is this a reason to *not* add the array functionality provided
> in
> > this patch? I still think it is a useful feature.
>
> I do not have a strong opinion here. If it has not been developed yet, I
> would advise to implement a decompressing plugin (a wrapper around
> another plugin to make it universal?) as it helps for the general case,
> not only for models that can be divided into arrays.
>
> Looking at the patches, there is a lot of new code that may need to be
> maintained in the future in exchange for hard to estimate gain. On the
> other hand, it would be a pity to drop the code clean-up and bug fixes
> you mentioned.
>
> Cheers,
> Orson
>
> > On Tue, Nov 7, 2017 at 9:40 AM, Maciej Suminski <maciej.suminski@xxxxxxx
> >
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Hi Oliver,
> >>
> >> What do you think about providing the models as compressed files? As any
> >> text format, one can expect quite high compression ratio. Perhaps that
> >> would be sufficient to solve the huge libraries problem.
> >>
> >> Cheers,
> >> Orson
> >>
> >> On 11/06/2017 03:01 PM, Oliver Walters wrote:
> >>> To provide an option to reduce the size of the 3D model library, I have
> >>> implemented an "array" feature for 3D models. A module (footprint) can
> >>> reference a single model multiple times, with a dimensional offset
> >> between
> >>> each copy.
> >>>
> >>> (Note - just the PinHeader models are currently over 1GB! This feature
> >> lets
> >>> you use a single 3D model for all pin headers or similar repetitive
> >>> footprints within a certain series).
> >>>
> >>> Features:
> >>>
> >>> 1. Specify repeat count and repeat step in x/y/z axes
> >>> 2. Save / load implemented. (If no repeat option used, no extra output
> is
> >>> generated - old files are not touched)
> >>> 3. Render in 3D viewer
> >>> 4. Render in raytracing viewer
> >>> 5. Export to VRML (multiple references to single file)
> >>> 6. Export to STEP
> >>>
> >>> Notes:
> >>>
> >>> a. An exported STEP file will now be (possibly) much smaller as it
> >>> references a single small object multiple times
> >>> b. There were a couple of bugs I found where model offset units were
> >>> incorrectly translated between INCHES and MM
> >>>
> >>> A couple of screenshots:
> >>>
> >>> https://imgur.com/a/EOwPh
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Testing:
> >>>
> >>> Wayne verified that the file units for 3D model data are in mm - I
> >> *think*
> >>> this means that there was previously a bug regarding 3D model offset,
> >> where
> >>> the scaling factor in the file was interpreted as inches when exporting
> >>> (e.g. to STEP)
> >>>
> >>> I believe I have fixed this bug - confirmation would be great.
> >>>
> >>> Cheers,
> >>> Oliver
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
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> >>>
> >>
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> >>
> >
>