----- Original Message -----
> From: Bill Morris <[email protected]>
> To: Cirilo Bernardo <[email protected]>
> Cc: Miguel Angel Ajo Pelayo <[email protected]>;
> "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
> Sent: Monday, May 28, 2012 10:55 PM
> Subject: Re: [Kicad-developers] Future of 3D models in KiCAD
>
>
>> >This is an important feature, I've been playing recently with .step
> in FreeCAD, and the .step support worked quite well. It also seems to be the
> standard for 3D exchange for mechanical CAD.
>> >
>>
>> Yes, STEP AP203 (and more recently AP214) and the much older IGES are
> perhaps the most widely supported formats for exchanging 3D shapes.
>
> AMF, Collada and STL might also be a good options but STEP is a
> preferred/acceptable format for 3D models of components.
>
> However you may also want to look at IDF for the actual board.
> http://www.iheartrobotics.com/2009/04/ecad-vs-mcad-round-1-fight.html
> IDF can be used to support things like assignment of keep-out zones for
> connectors and back-annotation for routing the board.
>
I have looked into IDF2,3,4 and PSI-5 thanks to input from people on the
kicad-users list. It will be relatively easy to implement IDF2 and 3 and even
IDF4 is not so difficult. However, although quite a few MCAD packages support
IDF3, IDF4 is not well supported - it has pretty much been replaced by PSI-5.
The specs for PSI-5 will essentially cost a few thousand $. Anyway, I think
IDF3 is worth supporting, but it is an extremely limited spec; IDF4 is much
more interesting, but as I said not widely supported in contemporary MCAD
software. PSI-5 should probably be supported some time in the future. At any
rate, IDF support should be part of KiCAD rather than a separate tool as I was
considering for the STEP support; IDF and STEP serve very different functions
so it's not surprising that they should be 2 different projects. One more item
for the wish list.
- Cirilo
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