Author Topic: Best way to create a 3D model of a board.  (Read 18952 times)

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Offline Aodhan145Topic starter

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Best way to create a 3D model of a board.
« on: August 28, 2015, 12:54:43 am »
I wanted a 3D model of a board so I exported an IDF file from eagle and imported it into solidworks via circuit works and made the board. Then I created the components and placed them on. Is there any faster / better way to do this? I added my end result. It turned out kind of nice.
 

Offline free_electron

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Re: Best way to create a 3D model of a board.
« Reply #1 on: August 28, 2015, 01:32:02 am »
Use altium :) drop STEP files directly in the library. no need for 3d party tools.
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Offline Aodhan145Topic starter

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Re: Best way to create a 3D model of a board.
« Reply #2 on: August 28, 2015, 02:34:44 am »
Ill just whip out a couple of thousand of pounds for altium. I'm 15 cant afford that shit.
 

Offline pickle9000

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Re: Best way to create a 3D model of a board.
« Reply #3 on: August 28, 2015, 02:45:58 am »
Ill just whip out a couple of thousand of pounds for altium. I'm 15 cant afford that shit.

Excellent answer!
 

Offline Farley

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Re: Best way to create a 3D model of a board.
« Reply #4 on: August 28, 2015, 02:50:41 am »
DipTrace exports STEP files. It works well.
Create the component models in SolidWorks, save them as STEP files and add them to the component patterns you create in DipTrace.
 

Offline rx8pilot

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Re: Best way to create a 3D model of a board.
« Reply #5 on: August 28, 2015, 02:54:41 am »
Ill just whip out a couple of thousand of pounds for altium. I'm 15 cant afford that shit.

How much did you pay for SolidWorks?
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Offline Aodhan145Topic starter

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Re: Best way to create a 3D model of a board.
« Reply #6 on: August 28, 2015, 03:36:21 am »
Ill just whip out a couple of thousand of pounds for altium. I'm 15 cant afford that shit.

How much did you pay for SolidWorks?

Got it from school only 2012 version though.
 

Offline Aodhan145Topic starter

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Re: Best way to create a 3D model of a board.
« Reply #7 on: August 28, 2015, 03:38:02 am »
DipTrace exports STEP files. It works well.
Create the component models in SolidWorks, save them as STEP files and add them to the component patterns you create in DipTrace.

DipTrace has always sounded interesting. I've never used it before. I must give it a go.
 

Offline ludzinc

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Re: Best way to create a 3D model of a board.
« Reply #8 on: August 28, 2015, 03:50:24 am »
Use altium :) drop STEP files directly in the library. no need for 3d party tools.

Use Circuit Maker :) drop STEP files directly in the library. no need for 3d party tools.
 

Offline free_electron

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Re: Best way to create a 3D model of a board.
« Reply #9 on: August 28, 2015, 03:57:51 am »
Use altium :) drop STEP files directly in the library. no need for 3d party tools.

Use Circuit Maker :) drop STEP files directly in the library. no need for 3d party tools.

exactly !  there ya go. Use Circuitmaker , the free version of Altium.
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Online Mechatrommer

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Re: Best way to create a 3D model of a board.
« Reply #10 on: August 28, 2015, 03:58:40 am »
Ill just whip out a couple of thousand of pounds for altium. I'm 15 cant afford that shit.
How much did you pay for SolidWorks?
Got it from school only 2012 version though.
try asking the school again if they got altium older version.
Nature: Evolution and the Illusion of Randomness (Stephen L. Talbott): Its now indisputable that... organisms “expertise” contextualizes its genome, and its nonsense to say that these powers are under the control of the genome being contextualized - Barbara McClintock
 

Offline rx8pilot

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Re: Best way to create a 3D model of a board.
« Reply #11 on: August 28, 2015, 04:42:21 am »
Ill just whip out a couple of thousand of pounds for altium. I'm 15 cant afford that shit.

How much did you pay for SolidWorks?

Got it from school only 2012 version though.

If you are able to steal SolidWorks, you should be able to steal Altium Designer too right?
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Offline wasyoungonce

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Re: Best way to create a 3D model of a board.
« Reply #12 on: August 28, 2015, 05:52:56 am »
You probably already know of eagleup and eagle3D using POV ray.
https://eagleup.wordpress.com/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Render-3D-images-of-your-PCBs-using-Eagle3D-and-PO/
http://www.societyofrobots.com/electronics_Eagle3D_tutorial.shtml

I played with the POV ray and eagle3D and it works ok but is a little laborious, lacking part models...although I did write script modifications for 3D parts I needed.   Really all this did was make a nice looking 3D model...not really 3D engineering.

« Last Edit: August 28, 2015, 05:56:41 am by wasyoungonce »
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Offline kingofkya

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Re: Best way to create a 3D model of a board.
« Reply #13 on: August 28, 2015, 06:03:55 am »
Use kicad:P


well the prereleses anyways:P
all i did to create this was click the view 3d button.
 

Offline Galenbo

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Re: Best way to create a 3D model of a board.
« Reply #14 on: August 28, 2015, 06:06:02 am »
If you are able to steal SolidWorks, you should be able to steal Altium Designer too right?
The only things left on the list are a stolen win7/win10 and a hacked version of photoshop.
Why pay for one license if all the rest is illegal anyway.
If you try and take a cat apart to see how it works, the first thing you have on your hands is a nonworking cat.
 

Offline Karel

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Re: Best way to create a 3D model of a board.
« Reply #15 on: August 28, 2015, 07:42:34 am »
Eagle can do 3d export to IDF, a format that can be read by all professional mechanical CAD software.
For details, have a look here:

http://www.element14.com/community/thread/43949/l/idf-export-broken

The resulting IDF file can be converted to a step file with FreeCAD, a free mechanical CAD program.
We send those files to our mechanical engineer who is responsible for the enclosures.
Works fine for us.
 

Offline Aodhan145Topic starter

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Re: Best way to create a 3D model of a board.
« Reply #16 on: August 28, 2015, 10:22:49 am »
If I was in some way to come across altium is there any really good tutorials. Ive used it once and it was so complicated all I worked out to do what to place one part on the schematic then I couldn't do anything.
 

Online Mechatrommer

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Re: Best way to create a 3D model of a board.
« Reply #17 on: August 28, 2015, 05:31:48 pm »
If you are able to steal SolidWorks, you should be able to steal Altium Designer too right?
The only things left on the list are a stolen win7/win10 and a hacked version of photoshop.
Why pay for one license if all the rest is illegal anyway.
All my computers are running some kind of pirated windows. I do have enough keys but I lost them all.
you dont have to reply to all these offtopic including mine earlier...

If I was in some way to come across altium is there any really good tutorials. Ive used it once and it was so complicated all I worked out to do what to place one part on the schematic then I couldn't do anything.
the one draw back in altium is they dont provide step by step video like diptrace but... reading online documentation is the closest thing to get acquainted... i suggest starting with...
http://wiki.altium.com/download/temp/pdfexport-20150828-280815-1729-70077/ADOH-CreatingLibraryComponents-280815-1729-70078.pdf?contentType=application/pdf
and then...
http://www.altium.com/files/altiumdesigner/s08/learningguides/ap0140%20understanding%20design%20annotation.pdf
and then...
http://www.altium.com/files/altiumdesigner/s08/learningguides/tu0117%20getting%20started%20with%20pcb%20design.pdf

Nature: Evolution and the Illusion of Randomness (Stephen L. Talbott): Its now indisputable that... organisms “expertise” contextualizes its genome, and its nonsense to say that these powers are under the control of the genome being contextualized - Barbara McClintock
 

Offline Bassman59

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Re: Best way to create a 3D model of a board.
« Reply #18 on: August 28, 2015, 08:46:38 pm »
Ill just whip out a couple of thousand of pounds for altium. I'm 15 cant afford that shit.

How much did you pay for SolidWorks?

 :-DD  :popcorn:
 

Offline Bassman59

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Re: Best way to create a 3D model of a board.
« Reply #19 on: August 28, 2015, 08:48:42 pm »
If you are able to steal SolidWorks, you should be able to steal Altium Designer too right?
The only things left on the list are a stolen win7/win10 and a hacked version of photoshop.
Why pay for one license if all the rest is illegal anyway.

Why not just steal the whole fucking computer?

Why not just run an extension cord out to the neighbor's house and steal his electricity? And maybe he left his WiFi router open and insecured, so you can steal his bandwidth too? Why not steal his cat?
 

Offline Aodhan145Topic starter

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Re: Best way to create a 3D model of a board.
« Reply #20 on: August 28, 2015, 11:28:40 pm »
If you are able to steal SolidWorks, you should be able to steal Altium Designer too right?
The only things left on the list are a stolen win7/win10 and a hacked version of photoshop.
Why pay for one license if all the rest is illegal anyway.

Why not just steal the whole fucking computer?

Why not just run an extension cord out to the neighbor's house and steal his electricity? And maybe he left his WiFi router open and insecured, so you can steal his bandwidth too? Why not steal his cat?

I don't really like cats but the rest sounds good.  :-DD
« Last Edit: August 28, 2015, 11:31:59 pm by Aodhan145 »
 

Offline timofonic

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Re: Best way to create a 3D model of a board.
« Reply #21 on: September 07, 2015, 11:02:26 pm »
If you are able to steal SolidWorks, you should be able to steal Altium Designer too right?
The only things left on the list are a stolen win7/win10 and a hacked version of photoshop.
Why pay for one license if all the rest is illegal anyway.

Why not just steal the whole fucking computer?

Why not just run an extension cord out to the neighbor's house and steal his electricity? And maybe he left his WiFi router open and insecured, so you can steal his bandwidth too? Why not steal his cat?

I don't really like cats but the rest sounds good.  :-DD

Oftopic about "stealing" animals:

You don't steal animals, we the humans objectivice everything. We convert everything into a property, an object to own and even abuse.

This happens to humans too, in very diverse ways (slavery, abusive jobs, housewives...). If the cat is happy in the place, it will come back.

I love cats. They are my preferred animals since very early childhood. I love that feline behavior, their somewhat rebel attitude, their nice looks, their radical behaviour and how defensive they can be even to a stronger pungent if they have no choice (mothers, specially).

If you try to dominate a cat, you just create an enemy that way and you only will be able to slave them with extreme torture such as in circus. The behavior of cats is very complex and need to be understood properly to be a friend or parent of them, I even meet occasionally cats that are very friendly to me and not because I feed them.

With the exception of "wolfie" dogs, I find most canids to be boring and too dependent. I don't dislike them, but dogs like chihuahua seem an aberration to me.

I "stole" cats. Some people that must really be jailed and go to some good mental health professionals abused of them in many ways. From naive cats that are often attacked from other cats or dogs and not cured properly, malnutrition or getting horribly beaten because they did something "wrong".

They don't deserve that, fuck off and stole that . I saved them from a miserable life, they are part of my family now and I try to understand these little tigers the best I can.

Now I'm officially a mad man with lots of cats at home, it's really difficult to manage it and I'm really concerned about it. But I love these  animals just how they are, a bit crazy and impulsive like me :D


----  Oftopic off ----


I agree copyright infringement sucks, it's okay. But I think copyright sucks equally.

I understand why warez happens, people want to do stuff and don't have money for it. There's not property, you can't style something that's not physical. But that's a horrible long term solution to them, they are attached to something they have no control over it instead promoting or improving an affordable alternative.

Internet should be public for everyone in the same way as other services, it's becoming something fundamental for lots of reasons. I know many people with severe economical problems that "steal" internet but not for watching pr0n and such (maybe they do it occasionally, anyway), but mainly for their jobs and studies needs, even people using it to comminicate because having problems communication with others in real life is something important.

I think Intellectual Property to be a total bullshit of our era, it's totally nonsense to me. You can't own ideas or concepts, everything is developed after ideas from other people.

Anyway, very successful technology shoguns started business by stealing "Intellectual Properties": Bill Gates/Paul Allen and Steve Jobs/Wozniak. Even Edison did it a lot, one example were their movie projections.

This is why I prefer copyleft:
- There's no social discrimination.
- There's no vendor lock-in.
- Interested parties can improve the software in an organically way. It promotes collaboration instead competition.
- Less need of resources to do the same.
- Code quality can be a zillion times better than most propietary software if the project gets successful.
- If something bad happens, you can fork it or continue the development.
- It can provide more jobs worldwide and avoid monopolies.
- Companies with bad practices are eventually punished by the community, that's why forks such as Linux Mint are getting more popular than Ubuntu (for example).

It's hard to adapt to KiCad and FreeCAD? Okay, they aren't perfect. But they are usable and improving exponentially, despite having a thousand times less resources than the big competitors.
« Last Edit: September 08, 2015, 06:11:51 pm by Circuiteromalaguito »
 

Offline Aodhan145Topic starter

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Re: Best way to create a 3D model of a board.
« Reply #22 on: September 08, 2015, 05:00:20 pm »
It's hard to adapt to KiCad and FreeCAD? Okay, they aren't perfect. But they are usable and improving exponentially, despite having a thousand times less resources than the big competitors.

 Yeah I did decided to go with kicad I forgot to say. I haven't used it yet as I know eagle well and I can't be arsed to learn new software but I will get round to it.

 

Offline CatalinaWOW

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Re: Best way to create a 3D model of a board.
« Reply #23 on: September 08, 2015, 06:50:11 pm »
Striking amount of anguish about "stolen" software, although the OP only mentioned having a Student edition without saying whether he is a student or not.  Reminds me of the old adage about nobody being so righteous as a reformed "professional lady".

There is something seriously wrong with how our intellectual property works.  People have no qualms about buying used hardware.  This forum is rife with people gloating over high quality professional equipment that they paid a tiny fraction of the new cost.  In many cases, hardware that is still being sold new by the manufacturer.  This forum also has threads about how to get around software limitations in various hardware products.

But software is stolen if resold or given away.  No matter how old or obsolete.  I know there is a license agreement inside the package that says you didn't really buy the software, you only purchased an opportunity to use it for a little while on some finite number of machines, and perhaps by more than one person as long as they are using the same physical hardware.  But that sales mechanism is an exploit of the crazy way IP works.  I am sure that there is a business model that works based on actual sale of the software product.   Just compare it to any hardware item.  The manufacturing cost for software is criminally low.  Yes it is easy to duplicate, but in reality, so are a great many hardware items.
 

Offline free_electron

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Re: Best way to create a 3D model of a board.
« Reply #24 on: September 08, 2015, 07:41:36 pm »
Professional Electron Wrangler.
Any comments, or points of view expressed, are my own and not endorsed , induced or compensated by my employer(s).
 


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