ee_smajors wrote: > Over the last month, I have used PCBNEW to layout no fewer than 8 > circuit boards, 1 of them was a dense packed 6 layer doublesided smt > board 2400 pins. No problems with any of the output files... the > built-in gerber file viewer scared me a bit , but when looked at with > ViewMate, everything was perfect.
That's reassuring. BTW, that's fast work, you are clearly experienced. What EDA packages were you using before? > > Up to now, I have just ignored the 3D aspect. but I am sure that I > will end up with a nasty packaging job where it would prove very useful. > I have been using 3D view in T3001 and have found it quite useful, especially as I design boards that have lots of bulky components. It is priceless when you are trying to fit components vertically, e.g. beneath LCD modules or under the overhangs of e.g. trasformers. Another use is when the board has to fit into a space with an uneven limited height clearence. In this case I designed a 3D component that was in effect a block that mounted onto the top of the board on the column supports that was composed of blocks at different offsets from the board. In the past I have done boards that must be mounted together in a sandwhich with the components facing inwards, 3D would have been great here if a 3D model of one board could have used in the visualizzation of the other. T3001 has it's own built in 3D shape editor which is quick and easy to use, allthougth limited. The biggest drawback I found was it's use of absolute co-ordinates. As far as I have seen so far KiCAD uses relative offsets for the elements, but I have not had time to experiment yet with Wingz. My experience with T3001 would suggest that a simple tool can be more effective for the limited requirements for PCB layouts. > I too would like to use solidworks to generate the 3d models... > So, is the .wrl format compatible? > How exactly does one connect the .wrl to the PCBNEW module? > Is solidworks pricey? Is it easy to use? Maybe I will try instead of learning Wingz.
