gEDA-user: Re: dxf?

[Dave N6NZ]

Hello,
   Well for one thing, you certainly understand DXF much better than I, 
and have more experience with it.  Also, you have mechanical design 
experience that I lack.
    How are you writing the DXF?  I am using dxflib to read DXF files in 
my other project.  dxflib is a GPL's C++ DXF library that is used in 
QCAD. http://www.ribbonsoft.com/
    dxflib is pretty easy to use for reading DXF, but requires knowledge 
of DXF file structure to correctly output a DXF file.

-dave

Bert Timmerman wrote:
> Hi all gEDA users,
> 
> As of last december I'm trying to write a DXF exporter for pcb.
> 
> Currently exporting straight traces, filled rectangles  and circles (drill
> holes) goes well, polygons and curved traces and a round end cap style are a
> bit more difficult to implement.
> 
> So it's still experimental (it does create dxf files with entities and
> doesn't segfault every time the HID is started).
> 
> I guess it will take the better part of Q1/2007 to finish this 0.0.1 release
> of this exporter.
> 
> 
> Now for the original poster.
> 
> As I understand this one has to do with an importer for DXF entities.
> 
> I can see a possible usability of both exporter and importer if we want to
> improve the development of Printed Circuit Assembly (PCA).
> 
> PCA != PCB , so for now we develop pcb's with pcb by the electronics
> oriented people and PCA by the mechanical oriented people with a mechanical
> CAD application.
> 
> Speaking for myself, as a mechanical oriented person, the entities I would
> like to have in DXF-files for PCA are:
> 
> 1) Outline contour as a polyline (and extrude this to board thickness).
> 
> 2) List of XY-coordinates and top/bottom for all footprints (packages)
> exported as a list of XREF's.
> 
> 3) Trace segments of top/bottom/inside ?? layers as info. 
> 
> Basically 3) would be eye-candy because of the limitations of what
> mechanical oriented people could/would like to do with it.
> 
> OTOH for physical engineers this could be used for FEA in RF simulations,
> heat transfer, EMC and whatnot as long as your FEA software knows what to do
> with DXF files. YMMV ;-)
> 
> With these files a mechanical 3D model could be made to see wether the PCA
> would fit in the virtual product.
> 
> If changes would be neccesary, a DXF importer for pcb would be handy for
> changed outlines or XY-coordinates or top/bottom information of the packages
> involved.
> 
> As I recall a pcb "importer" is a concept not yet implemented in the HID way
> of doing things, for it is not a printer and is not an exporter.
> 
> Printer and exporter HID's are driven by a GUI or batch HID.
> 
> So for importing stuff we would need some kind of (batch) UI, either GUI or
> TUI or CLI to drive the DXF importer.
> 
> Just my EUR 0.01
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Bert Timmerman.
> 
> 
> 
> -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
> Van: geda-user-bounces at moria.seul.org
> [mailto:geda-user-bounces at moria.seul.org] Namens Carlos Nieves Ónega
> Verzonden: woensdag 7 februari 2007 19:12
> Aan: n6nz at arrl.net; geda-user
> Onderwerp: gEDA-user: Re: dxf?
> 
> El mar, 06-02-2007 a las 16:31 -0800, Dave N6NZ escribió:
>> Let me be clear about my motivation: I wrote a 2D DXF processor for 
>> another project, so I have become familiar with a particular DXF 
>> library that is very robust for 2D information.  Importing board 
>> outlines and mounting hole placement seems like useful functionality, 
>> and is a limited goal that I could probably accomplish.  If other 
>> people would find that functionality useful, I will look into it.  If 
>> it is not useful enough in that form to interest other users, I won't
> bother.
> 
> Of course it is useful! Please go ahead!
> 
> Carlos
> 
> 
> 
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