Re: gEDA-user: PCB+GL+3D Packages??

[Peter Clifton <pcjc2@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 2010-11-15 at 20:33 +0100, Bert Timmerman wrote:

> Some questions come to mind:
> 
> 1) Are the resistors modelled with 3D- primitives like spheres/cylinders, or
> are they modelled with 3D-faces ?

3D faces.. but you don't want to see the code ;) over 300 lines to draw
a resistor!

3D faces are probably the best model to render graphics from - hence my
desire to use VRML (also, KiCad does!). From the responses, some kind of
STEP to VRML converter might be warranted if I end up importing VRML.

Lots of evil like this:

    z = -resistor_width / 2. + resistor_bulge_offset;
    r = resistor_barrel_radius;
    glTexCoord1f (0.);
    glNormal3f (x_strip_edge1, y_strip_edge1, 0.);
    glVertex3f (r * x_strip_edge1, r * y_strip_edge1, z);
    glTexCoord1f (0.);
    glNormal3f (x_strip_edge2, y_strip_edge2, 0.);
    glVertex3f (r * x_strip_edge2, r * y_strip_edge2, z);



> 2) Are "we" (the pcb-devs) going to teach pcb to do the modelling, or do we
> just export the information for creating 3D-views to a separate
> utility/application ?

One or both.?

I like the 3D view in PCB, but I don't propose we try to get
photo-realistic rendering to compete with blender. For that, we could
just export our geometry.

Similarly, a CAD model export would allow more mechanical design
integration, but I don't think that ought to be become part of PCB.

> I'm testing the feasibility of coding/using an OpenSCAD exporter for the
> above purpose, this looks promising, but at this moment I can give no 100 %
> guarantee of this becoming a viable solution.
> 
> However, OpenSCAD seems to have some (user) momentum in the MakerBot &
> Thingieverse culture, and the OpenSCAD code resembles to be a small subset
> of the C programming language.

Interesting.

> At least one nifty thing OpenSCAD can do is extrude a geometry defined in a
> 2D DXF-file (made with QCAD for instance), this would allow for arbitrary
> shaped boards.

Nice.

-- 
Peter Clifton

Electrical Engineering Division,
Engineering Department,
University of Cambridge,
9, JJ Thomson Avenue,
Cambridge
CB3 0FA

Tel: +44 (0)7729 980173 - (No signal in the lab!)
Tel: +44 (0)1223 748328 - (Shared lab phone, ask for me)



_______________________________________________
geda-user mailing list
geda-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user