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 Posted: Jul 13, 2012 - 05:50 PM |
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Joined: Mar 27, 2006
Posts: 244
Location: Vancouver, BC
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| Don't know how many of you use Eagle to do your PCB work, but I've been using it for about 4 years now. It's lightweight and only $160 for a hobby license. Anyhow, there is a new package called EagleUp that lets you render your PCB's in 3d relatively easily. Just need to install Google Sketchup (which is free). Here is an example of the last board I did. |
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-Christan
Summer Student, Chief Tinkerer
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Posted: Jul 13, 2012 - 08:56 PM |
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Joined: Dec 11, 2007
Posts: 6841
Location: Cleveland, OH
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Hi Christan,
Thanks for posting that, how very cool!
I'll have to look into it further.
JC |
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Posted: Jul 15, 2012 - 11:36 AM |
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Joined: Dec 17, 2005
Posts: 1498
Location: Europe- Estonia- Tallinn
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Can it be used for anything useful? Can the 3D data be exported to a CAD software perhaps or is it just to get "pretty images" of the board?
And can for example casing information and 3D LCD's and that sorts be added easily etc? |
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Posted: Jul 15, 2012 - 01:41 PM |
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Joined: Dec 11, 2011
Posts: 190
Location: Finland
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Posted: Jul 16, 2012 - 06:41 PM |
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Joined: Mar 27, 2006
Posts: 244
Location: Vancouver, BC
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bloody-orc wrote:
Can it be used for anything useful? Can the 3D data be exported to a CAD software perhaps or is it just to get "pretty images" of the board?
And can for example casing information and 3D LCD's and that sorts be added easily etc?
I don't know what you mean by "useful" but we use these renderings all the time when we get an assembly done. Assembly houses love having a 3d rendering to verify component placement. You can also take measurements from it or put it into an enclosure to check for spacing and other constraints. |
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-Christan
Summer Student, Chief Tinkerer
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Posted: Jul 16, 2012 - 08:40 PM |
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Joined: Feb 25, 2002
Posts: 807
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Altium Designer has 3D built-in, and does it pretty darn well. You can pull in models of your enclosure, check for interference, export back out to CAD etc. It will even generate key-framed flyovers, definitely something to wow the suit crowd.
Pity it's so bloody expensive. If they would only do a lower-cost hobby or light-use version, they could own the market. |
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Dean 94TT
"Life is just one damn thing after another" Elbert Hubbard (1856 - 1915)
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Posted: Jul 18, 2012 - 07:11 AM |
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Joined: Sep 03, 2004
Posts: 378
Location: Silicon Valley
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A month or so ago I started using KiCad. I even managed to get it to work on the mac. The Linux and Windows versions are at the point of stably useful.
KiCad has a 3D option based on a VRML variant called wings. In three weeks I was able to model a SD card, layout a board and etch it myself. I spent several months last year using Eagle to do a similar board. The more recent builds of KiCad have an Eagle *.brd plugin.
I read a group called PCB-GCode, which is for those of us with CNC routing capability. I have yet to rout a board (My spindle is too slow for good results.) I noticed that there are a lot of people bailing out of Eagle in favor of KiCad.
After several years of asking one of the Altium reps, I was able to get one of the coveted trial months. It took me much of that time just to read the docs and run some tutorials. I still like Altium Designer, but none of my clients are willing to pay for that much overhead.
I think Eagle has missed the boat and is headed in the wrong direction. I am less and less inclined to do stuff in Eagle now that it has a corporate leash on it. Technically I need a pro license, and the associated fees.
KiCad is completely open. It also has no limitations. Technically KiCad is "Free" if one does not consider the time to get it installed and the hardware it runs on. It also has the caveats of open source software, Frequent build releases and the lack of a stable easy to access distribution. On the other hand since one has the source code, If there is something that one does not like then the program can be customized.
The reason 3D works in Altium and KiCad, is that there has been time to develop libraries of most components. Where 3D is integrated into the design process.
What really makes or breaks a package is how easy it is to create or locate footprints. Since KiCad is open, there are translators to and from Eagle, so if a footprint exist in an Eagle Library, there is probably a KiCad conversion.
KiCad separated the schematic symbols from the footprint. It takes a bit of effort to do the mapping. The editor is probably as complex as Eagle's, and is somewhat still in "development." It does however use the "English" grammar of click and drag, rather than Eagle's German grammar of having the "verb" action at the end of the sentence. So I do not get parts stuck on the mouse and keep trying to click to get rid of them.
Most of my older stuff is based on ExpressPCB, Where the board sized is unlimited. I could have done the organ controller with ExpressPCB, But I needed a specific SD footprint. So I had to create the footprint either way. The manufacture of one of the microSD sockets had a 3D model I was able to convert to STL then to WINGS. The other footprint I created from the data sheet and the physical part. Since I have control of the anchor point in KiCad (Eagle probably does this but I never learned how to move it) I can create footprints that are identical with both Express as well as KiCad.
The tricky thing was I only needed one board and the board was L shaped as the SD socket needed to come out of a slot in the drawer of a 3 Manual Wurlitzer Console. |
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