Em Ter 26 Jul 2005 16:02, Dave McGuire escreveu: > On Jul 26, 2005, at 2:56 PM, Xtian Xultz wrote: > > Sorry Dave, I forgot about that. PCs and Macs have 3d accelerated > > graphics, > > what kind of machine do you use? > > I use a Mac for "regular" tasks and a couple of Sun UltraSPARC > systems for CAD work, including PCB. My graphics hardware was selected > for high resolution and fast 2D operations, not 3D, because printed > circuit board layout is a 2D task.
I disagree with you. PCB design is a mechanical task. Of course, a lot of electronic, phisics, etc, skills are needed, but one important characteristic is the mechanical part. For example, my most recent project is made by two boards, like a sandwich (which remebers me that I am hungry, its time to dinner :D ), and was difficult to draw because some big components (like a Molex connector, electrolitic capacitor, etc) couldnt be below the second board, so I had to choose where to put the components, how the upper board should be, etc etc. And of course, I need to take care about ground loops, EMC, etc. Of couser I did the work in gschem and pcb, but if I could render the board in a 3D view, placing both boards togheter, that would make my job much more easy (and probably I would not did an error where two mounting holes didnt fit). So, I disagree that pcb design is a 2D task, I allways must take care about the third dimension... and 3D visualization, in my opinion, is a needed feature. The 3D vizualization that Kicad gives (I need to study a little more about that amazing open source tool, maybe do one or two works with him) is far from perfect or completely usefull, but is a good start. > GTK itself puts more graphics processing load on the system than does > the core functionality of PCB. That strikes me as quite odd. Nothing > about PCB is 3D. Yeah, I agree. But GTK is so... beatifull :D > > But what doesnt get out of my mind, is thinking that if you want to > > use a > > software that is graphically intensive, is not a good idea to use a > > machine > > that isnt. > > Of course you're correct...but there's a big difference between 2D > operations and 3D operations, and good 2D performance and good 3D > performance seem (inexplicably) to be mutually exclusive. > > -Dave > > -- > Dave McGuire "I wonder what 'Error Code 1' means. That's > Cape Coral, FL what it said when it started smoking." > -Jonathan Patschke
