On Sun, Nov 16, 2014 at 5:16 AM, Nick Østergaard <[email protected]> wrote:
> 2014-11-15 0:38 GMT+01:00 Cirilo Bernardo <[email protected]>: > > For over 2 years I have maintained a project for generating VRML models > for > > use with KiCad. > > ( See http://kicad3dmodels.sourceforge.net. ) The code includes basic > > objects or tools > > which can be used to describe parts using parametric models. I think if > the > > source can be > > included in KiCad then more people will use it and perhaps even > contribute > > to extending > > the code. If this sounds like a good idea, let me know and I will start > > preparing the code for > > inclusion in KiCad. This will take some time since I will have to review > the > > coding style and > > modify the CMake files to integrate well with the KiCad source. > > > > I would propose to add these tools to the 'utils' source directory since > it > > is an independent tool. > > Initial builds would have to be optional since the code has currently > only > > been tested on Linux; > > one of the reasons I would like to move the source into KiCad is to get > more > > feedback on > > cross-platform builds. Hopefully the tools will eventually run on all > > supported platforms and can > > become a default enabled tool in KiCad. One advantage of this parametric > > modeling is that > > much less memory is required to produce high quality models when > compared to > > the current > > popular technique of manual modeling in Wings3D + conversion to VRML. The > > current tools for > > example have a number of Python scripts which can generate many > thousands of > > models. > > I have not tried to check out what you have on sf.net. But how is this > going to integrate with kicad? Is it supposed to be used as the IDF > tools? Should this be integrated in pcbnew's GUI or? Sorry if these > are stupid questions, but I just have a hard time to see how I can use > this in a pcb design workflow. > > Nick > Hi Nick, These tools are generally not part of the KiCad workflow. Users will only have a need for them if they make use of the 3Dviewer or VRML export and either need a model which is already supplied by the tools or need to create a new model. The idea is that the tool allows users to craft new high-quality models using Python scripts rather than Wings3D. This allows much greater automation of the model generation while providing a very compact (programmatic) representation of the models. With the generation of PCB headers for example, many hundreds of parts are generated with only a few hundred bytes of code; with WIngs3D someone has to hand-craft a few hundred models and carefully check the surface appearance parameters. With this programming approach to generating models if a mistake is spotted and fixed, then the affected scripts can be run and thousands of models regenerated in only a few seconds; the surface appearances are controlled using a number of predefined material appearances so there is much greater uniformity in the physical appearance of parametrically generated models as compared to hand-crafted individual models. - Cirilo
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