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Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2015 20:19:14 +0000
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Subject: Re: [geda-user] Proposing a New Hierarchical Data Structure?
From: "Peter Clifton (petercjclifton AT googlemail DOT com) [via geda-user AT delorie DOT com]" <geda-user AT delorie DOT com>
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> Seconded.  STEP its a huge pain in the behind because no free software
> supports it.  I had to have a copy of solid works on windows for nothing but
> export to STEP, so I could have parts designed with openSCAD actually
> manufactured.  That was a while ago and now 3D printing has forced
> manufacturers to support STL.  With that happening I doubt very much that
> FOSS support for STEP has improved much.  In any case *something* is
> definitely stopping STEP adoption in FOSS and it's a good bet its the
> relative unavailability of the standard.

Opencascade probably counts as FOSS now (even if it is tied to LGPL2
only - no later). FreeCAD uses it as the kernel, and can import /
export STEP.

So - question becomes, can you get openSCAD into Opencascade /
FreeCAD? (I have a vague recollection there was an add-in module for
the later).
I'm curious - how do you get it into Solidworks?

Even with the likes of OpenSCAD and FreeCAD, I'd argue that there is
no real 3D CAD competition in the FOSS world, not when compared to the
likes of Solidworks. Sure, some things will be possible - with a bit
of effort, but we're probably gaining ground on FOSS 3D CAD even
slower than FOSS EDA tools (at least the later could be considered
feature-complete, and on parity with a sub-set of the commercial EDA
spectrum).


STEP is the easy bit - (compared to the 3D kernel stuff). That is not
understate how much of a pain STEP can be! - I'm just not sure it is
possible to _overstate_ how nasty 3D kernels are.

(Look at all the problems we have getting polygon boolean algebra
right... with two linear, 2D primitives... extend to 3D, with arcs,
lines, parametric-curves, splines, .... potentially in 3D spaces, not
just planar - and you start to get a small hint of the scale of the
engineering and mathematical problem).


Peter