i think that possibly the advantage of doing the other formats, especialy if its simple, is it opens up things like using openscad and blender to build 3d components, assimp defines a standard internal 3dmesh + metadata dictionary and then imports/exports all formats too and from that.
On Sun, Dec 1, 2019, 12:10 PM Seth Hillbrand, <s...@kipro-pcb.com> wrote: > On 2019-11-30 18:48, Tim Hawkins wrote: > > Have a look at "assimp", http://www.assimp.org/ it does STEP too, and a > whole bunch of 3d model formats both in and out, so it be used to extend > the range of formats that 3d models can be accepted in or exported. > > > Hi Tim- > > Thanks for the link. I wasn't aware of that project before. > > However, I would not be in favor of extending the range of 3d models > accepted. There are a couple reasons here and I'll try to give them > clearly. > > 1) Our focus is on accepting common formats generated by part > manufacturers. Right now, that is STEP. Some auto-generating sites like > TE.com will also generate other 3d formats but virtually everyone provides > STEP. > > As we increase the number of formats, we increase the support time > for corner cases that don't quite work right. By focusing on STEP (and to > a lesser extent VRML), we can spend that extra time improving other aspects > of KiCad. I would also be in favor of dropping IGES support but I wouldn't > push for it. > > 2) Internally, we use OpenCascade for our STEP import/export. I don't > really see us re-writing that code unless it becomes untenable. It's a > significant investment in multiple areas. > > Related to this, none of the lead devs is terribly integrated in the > modeling code at the moment. I suspect that a few of us could muddle > through some fixes but the two areas using 3d models are two of the least > coupled areas in the KiCad codebase. They follow different coding > conventions, different naming styles and re-implement many areas of the > common code. One of my goals during v6 is to bring these both into better > alignment with the overall codebase to improve their maintainability, test > coverage and approachability to new devs. > > On a side note, I do plan on implementing the standard .stpz, or > compressed STEP[1], format during v6. But this will be in the context of > OpenCascade. > > Best- > Seth > > [1] https://www.cax-if.org/documents/rec_prac_file_compression_v11.pdf > > KiCad Services Corporation [image: KiCad Services Corporation Logo] > Seth Hillbrand > *Lead Developer* > +1-530-302-5483 <+12126039372> > Davis, CA > www.kipro-pcb.com i...@kipro-pcb.com > https://twitter.com/KiProEDA <https://twitter.com/KiProEDA> > https://www.linkedin.com/company/kicad > <https://www.linkedin.com/company/kicad> >
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