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Date:	Fri, 21 Jun 2013 19:33:25 +0200
From:	Milan Prochac <milan AT prochac DOT sk>
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To:	geda-user AT delorie DOT com
Subject:	Re: [geda-user] 3D modelling and gEDA
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On 17. 6. 2013 1:27, Kai-Martin Knaak wrote:
> I suggest to tell an existing 3D modeller about the geometry of the
> board and the position of components. This does not necessarily need to
> be done via one of the established general 3D data exchange formats. For
> example, freecad is well equipped to read python commands that build the
> 3D model from primitives and components from a library. Then freecad
> can do all the heavy lifting involved with photo realistic rendering,
> integration with 3D models of enclosures, 2D sketches for the workshop
> and finally export to STEP or other established formats.

The python scripts and boolean operations on objects provided by freecad 
seem promising at first glance. They offer us the level of simplicity 
which gives us opportunity to implement 3D export with limited resources 
in acceptable period of time.

I am practical man, so I tried to implement export of 3D model using 
freecad python scripts (tracks/lines as first step). But the results 
were disappointing. Tracks look more like Escher's stairways than PCB, 
for more "complicated" design (up to 20 lines) script runs for ages, it 
often fails ("Fusion failed" or "Operation was not done") or freecad 
completely crashes. It seems that underlying libraries have serious 
problems with boolean operations on objects with common edges or faces - 
slight adjustment of object position leads to different (sometimes 
correct) result.

I placed  simple examples - both generated and manually modified scripts 
(together with snapshot of results) in archive 
http://static.bastl.sk/pcb/freecad_examples.zip, so anybody can check 
them for mistakes (I am quite inexperienced with freecad). Any advice 
will be welcome.

Milan

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