Re: gEDA-user: gEDA-dev: Arc intersection connectivity bug

[Peter Clifton <pcjc2@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 2009-11-13 at 10:31 +0100, Gabriel Paubert wrote:

> Well, expect the size of the Gerber files to explode and OpenGL
> performance to drop...

Gerber files might get larger, but they aren't exactly small as is.
Polygons already use line-approximations of curves, so extending that to
include the arcs (/splines) themselves probably wouldn't be _that_ much
more bloat.

For GL, some poor sod would have to write the curve decimation routine,
but with that done - performance shouldn't be much worse than with any
other curvilinear geometry we have now. GL doesn't do curves, it does
triangles. (Ok - perhaps that isn't strictly true - but for our
purposes, we need to produce triangles to send GL),

Every line, circle, arc you see on the PCB+GL screen is really made up
of a load of triangles. 

> I'm not really sure that I need even elliptical arcs for a start.
> 
> OTOH, I'd like to be able to have arc segments as boundary for polygons,
> since it would simplify some common microwave structures.

Harry suggested this in a comment in his polygon code - it would make
things like round holes in polygons nicer too.

I'm OK with the idea, but I think we need to get the bugs with the
existing polygon handling nailed before we try and get into anything
more complex than lines (those are damned tricky enough as it is!)

Best wishes,

Peter C.



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