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From: Markus Hitter <mah AT jump-ing DOT de>
Subject: Re: [geda-user] Thoughts on mechanical CAD interaction...
Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 15:00:27 +0200
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Am 29.08.2013 um 13:19 schrieb Peter Clifton:

> (Solidworks 2012, rendering a board geometry I created in PCB)

Hi Peter,

welcome to the group of 3D-exporter-writers! There's a branch  
"LP699502-openscad-exporter" in the git repo already, which adds not  
one, but two exporters to OpenSCAD. OpenSCAD can export STL, which  
can be imported to SolidWorks and many other CAD applications.


> The form this is taking at the moment is a STEP exporter, one I've
> written as a proof of concept exercise based on reverse engineering  
> the
> STEP output from Solidworks for simple objects.
>
> This is HARD.. and I am currently looking to find approximately Ł255
> (366.30 CHF) ( to purchase the official CD-ROM containing the various
> STEP standard parts from the ISO. (Donations welcome).

My knowledge so far is, STEP is a pretty complex description  
language, similar to perhaps PostScript. As such it's probably a good  
idea to use one of the two existing STEP handling libraries -  
OpenCascade or STEPcode - instead of reinventing the wheel.

> For those who  are impatient, and want to try it now, you may find the
> code in one state or other in my repo.or.cz repository for PCB. You  
> want
> the "step_export_on_local_customisation" branch.

If I had a free wish, I'd ask you to move this branch to the central  
repo, so everybody can test and develop. :-)


Markus

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Dipl. Ing. (FH) Markus Hitter
http://www.jump-ing.de/