DEX does not need to import 3D models. It generates the 3D automatically from the part. No need for you to do anything!
Regards
Iliya Kovac
Hmmm . So how do you deal with part height ? Like of qfn packages ? Some are 1.2 mm some are 1.5 mm..
On this whole 3D subject. I met the guys from diptrace yesterday at devcon. They were handing out flyers. They had a strange attitude. Didn't seem friendly, looked kinda bored. Pushed a flyer in your hand and that was sorta it. I asked them about their 3D capabilities as they had a kind of video playing. In essnece all that 3D stuff is only eye-candy. What's you opinion ?
I want 3D design rule checking! ( like altium does) being able to load a step file of a complex mechanical chasis, slice it, project the slice to a board contour , place parts and heve the tool tell me : you can't place that part here because it is too tall.
When i'm done i want to export a mechanically accurate step file so my mechanical engineers can crosscheck. That is what 3d should be used for. Anyhting else is just a fancy renderer. Big whoop.
Couple of weeks ago i had to help a customer doing a layout. Mechanical tolerances were very thight. We had to handpick parts , i created mechanically accurate linraires by pulling the step files from the parts vendors. Pulled in the chassis ( a harddisk drive ) did the placement. Altium worked like a charm. I had realtime feedback of what could and could not be done. In half a day i closed the layout.
Board fits perfectly.
Now, i dont know avout autotrax, but if that is not what you intend to do with 3d, please drop it and focus on something else .
So i am wondering about this automatic generation of parts. There is no way you can do this. What about connectors ? That auto stuff may work for old crap like dil and idc pinheaders but there's thousands of other packages out there. Better make sure you can read and write Step. As that is the common 3d format out there.