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Date: Wed, 23 Dec 2015 00:40:55 +0000
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Subject: Re: [geda-user] Proposing a New Hierarchical Data Structure?
From: "Peter Clifton (petercjclifton AT googlemail DOT com) [via geda-user AT delorie DOT com]" <geda-user AT delorie DOT com>
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>> STEP is the easy bit - (compared to the 3D kernel stuff). That is not
>> understate how much of a pain STEP can be! - I'm just not sure it is
>> possible to _overstate_ how nasty 3D kernels are.

FWIW, I never proposed to write one (even if a part of me wishes I had
the brain-power to do so!)

> Agreed.  All the talk of casually turning pcb into a 3D app kind of shocks
> me.

3D visualisation is easy, and is not something we should be scared of.
3D viz inside PCB tools is the norm now, not the exception. (NB: Not
just commercial, KiCAD has a fairly decent 3D view)

3D CAD is a monster - and not in scope with what I'm suggesting. Leave
that for the 3D CAD packages - but we ought to be able to export stuff
that feeds them.

>>
>> (Look at all the problems we have getting polygon boolean algebra
>> right... with two linear, 2D primitives... extend to 3D, with arcs,
>> lines, parametric-curves, splines, .... potentially in 3D spaces, not
>> just planar - and you start to get a small hint of the scale of the
>> engineering and mathematical problem).
>
>
> Yep.  Considering that pcb covers most needs now, going 3D to get the last
> few seems like a really questionable decision compared to making specific
> inter-layer extensions to handle them.

If you didn't catch my talk from last year's FOSDEM, that covers
pretty much all the motivations why a certain amount of 3D export
capability is really useful in many engineering settings We don't need
a lot extra in terms of information to do a decent job of exporting
the board in 3D (including pulling in components).

Peter