X-Authentication-Warning: delorie.com: mail set sender to geda-user-bounces using -f
X-Recipient: geda-user AT delorie DOT com
From: "Anand P. Paralkar" <anand DOT paralkar AT anutan DOT net>
To: <geda-user AT delorie DOT com>
Subject: [geda-user] 3D View in PCB
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:35:23 +0530
Message-ID: <000e01cd0cb1$256baa10$7042fe30$@paralkar@anutan.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
	charset="iso-8859-1"
X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 12.0
Thread-Index: Ac0MsRx6VPbazP0ET5eK5gXU+YN02Q==
Content-Language: mr
X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report
X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - indifer.websitedns.in
X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - delorie.com
X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [47 12] / [47 12]
X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - anutan.net
X-BWhitelist: no
X-Source: 
X-Source-Args: 
X-Source-Dir: 
X-Source-Sender: static-mum-120.63.225.95.mtnl.net.in (Ankai) [120.63.225.95]:52161
X-Source-Auth: anutan
X-Email-Count: 1
X-Source-Cap: YW51dGFuO3hwcmVzc2hvO2luZGlmZXIud2Vic2l0ZWRucy5pbg==
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by delorie.com id q2S7Yjwb006256
Reply-To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com

Hi,

I have been a gEDA user for a couple of months now and I want to say a
sincere "thank you" to all the volunteers working on the gEDA projects.

I would like to suggest the following feature for the PCB tool:

The footprint file could optionally contain a field that captures the
component in all the three dimensions.  So a component footprint could have
entries like:

  a. Shape: Cuboid, Cylinder, .....
  b. Dimensions: Length = lll, Height = hhh, Radius = rrr, .....
  c. Colour : ccc

The PCB tool could then generate (under "Export layout...") a three
dimensional snapshot view of the populated PCB.  (I don't know anything in
graphics, but I am tempted to suggest "SVG" as a format for the exported
file.)  Alternatively, the PCB tool could have a built-in 3D viewer which
could also help the user to see the populated board from different angles.

I think this would be a really cool feature to have and would add immense
value and pleasure to the "placement" step of a board design flow.  (What if
the gEDA-PCB project can pull-in people from Inkscape? - Wow!)

Thanks once again for your brilliant efforts,
Anand