Hi folks, I'd like people's opinions on how to introduce the changes in the management of 3D models. The existing refactored code introduces the following:
1. configurable model filename resolution: this allows the user to have model files in different root paths, for example the model directory installed by kicad plus the user's own model directory + system-wide non-kicad model directory etc. This model resolution scheme also includes the current project directory in the search path for additional flexibility. The resolver paths can be configured via a GUI which is accessible from the File Browser. 2. 3D model parser plugin: the data for rendering a 3D view within kicad can now be managed by plugins. This allows the development/debugging of plugins without recompiling the bulk of kicad. In contrast the current system makes changes to the 3dviewer library which forces the re-linking of pcbnew and cvpcb while touching any related headers can force a broader recompile. It is possible to develop the plugins out-of-tree and versioning control can be used to ensure compatible APIs. 3. 3D model caching: model data can now be cached in a binary file format; this can speed up loading of some model types, for example any MCAD model which uses NURBS to describe surfaces. The cache can also write its data to a VRML2 compliant file thus providing an automatic conversion from the plugin's model type to VRML. 4. Model preview: in the Footprint Properties dialogs you can see the 3D model in a window and interactively adjust the scale/offset/rotation parameters. The original concept was to provide a 3D preview within the File Selector dialog as well but that would require much more work (patching wxWindows + additional testing on Linux/MSWin/OSX) so I'll drop that idea. Ultimately 3Dviewer will be replaced by a new rendering system which Mario is working on and there will be great improvements in the maintainability of the code as the entire 3D rendering code is cleaned up and its entrails removed from other code such as MODULE. However, that it a large task and may not be ready for quite a few months. So I propose we take advantage of the current improvements by pulling in a subset of the new code. The code will provide everything listed above in 1-3 but will not yet provide the much desired removal of S3DMASTER from MODULE - that step depends on the rewriting of the Renderer. Part 4 above depends on the implementation of working 3D parser plugins; this is a work in progress and it will take a few months to reimplement the existing X3D/VRML parsers as plugins. I estimate 2 or 3 weeks to prepare a branch to merge a subset of the existing code which will provide improved 3D file browsing. Model parsers are currently in development but should be ready in the first quarter of 2016. What do people think - should we introduce the current changes as soon as possible, providing improved browsing, or wait a few months so that we can include the preview window in the Footprint Properties dialogs? - Cirilo
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