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fritzing / fritzing-app

Fritzing desktop application
http://fritzing.org
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Export PCB design to 3D Model #4059

Open brdane opened 10 months ago

brdane commented 10 months ago

Problem

Users don't have a way to work their PCB design into an enclosure, in the case that they are developing a 3D model of one.

Proposed Solution

Be able to export the user's PCB design into a realistically-sized 3D model, preferably STL, that the user can load into a 3D-modelling software and accurately build and size an enclosure that perfectly can house the PCB.

failiz commented 10 months ago

As a first step, we could export the board outline and mounting holes to a dxf file (which can be later imported into mechanical CAD programs).

brdane commented 10 months ago

That's a great first step, and if there can be multiple model formats added on top of that to accommodate to a vast amount of users with different preferences of software, the better! 🙂

failiz commented 10 months ago

@brdane , could you specify the model formats that you would like to see? You mentioned STL before, but I think STEP or IGES would be better (STL is a mesh and it does not work well in CAD programs). In any case, the problem with those is that we would need a 3D model of the part and the current part format does not contain that information. It would be possible to export the PCB without components though.

brdane commented 10 months ago

I haven't thought of many model formats but I'm sure people have many different preferences, mine being STL as mentioned earlier. I'm not too sure on which ones are more often-used or standard... maybe 3DS and OBJ, for starters? I think if there can be plugin implementation for fritzing, that can influence a lot of programmers to make more import/export tools that you can just drag and drop into the installation files.

failiz @.***> schrieb am Di., 12. Sept. 2023, 09:39:

@brdane https://github.com/brdane , could you specify the model formats that you would like to see? You mentioned STL before, but I think STEP or IGES would be better (STL is a mesh and it does not work well in CAD programs). In any case, the problem with those is that we would need a 3D model of the part and the current part format does not contain that information. It would be possible to export the PCB without components though.

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KjellMorgenstern commented 10 months ago

Please try Fritzings Gerber and IPC export together with ZofzPCB. This will produce a 3d model of a Fritzing PCB, and it provides a basic editor to add parts that don't have a rendering. To get good results, you will need to buy ZofzPCB, but there is a free evaluation period.