3D Modeling in AutoCAD from PowerPCB....

[Tom]

Just Do a normal DXF output from PADS (assuming that you have given your parts a height).

Then bring it into AutoCAD.

At this point you go to views and change it to a 3D viewpoint.

Here you can get wire frame or even shaded view.

Haven't figured out how to keep the shading, but I'm working on it. If you figure it out, post the answer here.

[petehouwen]

"shademode", option flat or gourad (gourad looks better)

Another helpful command is "orbit", lets you interactively spin, pan, zoom.

[julimills]

Could you go into a little more detail about how to shade the parts and get them to stay that way? Some of us know just enough AutoCad to be dangerous.
Thanks

[tboyer]

How do you define the Hieght in PowerPCB?

[randychase]

Using the attribute for Component.Height

See more info in this thread:
http://www.pcbstandards.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=244

[tboyer]

Do all the parts have to be ECO registered?

If so this would take allot of work, most
of my libraries are off the shelf except for parts
that I defined. I would have to modify every part
in the library to change it to ECO registered.

Also, how does Pro-E know which dedicated
layer you chose?

If importing into AutoCad, it seems only the
Geometry .Height needs updated. AutoCad
does not handle the board thickness very well.
You have to explode the Boarder, change the
thickness, then re-draw the block. Of course
giving negative number for the thickness.
I then had to modify all of the parts on the bottom
of the board, giving then a negative z-offset
to shift them even with the bottom of the board.

Well, my ultimate goal here is to export this data
into Pro-E for our mechanical engineers.

[tboyer]

PADs or the version I have V4.01 does not have
Export "IDF Files" selection.

[petehouwen]

You need to purchase the Pro Engineer Link option from Pads/Innoveda/Mentor. You also need an IDF import option in Pro Engineer (more money).

[petehouwen]

OK, as promised, here's more info:

Turn on the 3D Orbit, solids, shade, and solids editing toolbars.

First, you will need to do a LOT of cleanup of the dxf'd info from PADS. Explode down until you get to a block which is named similar to the Pads decal name (0603_body) You can then erase all of the unneeded information. This should leave you with all of your part outlines. If you use the Orbit command, you will see that any part containing a geometry.height attribute has had it's outline extruded to that height. But it appears as just a tall polyline, not a solid.

Turning outlines to simple solids: If you double click a part, you will start the in-place block edit command. Follow the prompts and select all of the features of the block. The color of the selected features should change. Erase the ones you don't need. Using the Box command (the 3d box in the solids toolbar), you can snap to the corners of your outline to create a simple 3D solid box representation of your part. If you need more detail, use the Solids editing commands to add, subtract, make any required mods to make the part look like what you need (don't forget to delete the original polylines).

You will also need to create a box for the board, again snapping to the corners of the existing outline. Rememeber to use a negative z dimension for the height. Create any holes as cylinders (again, negative z) and subtract them from the board solid.

Once all your editing is done, use the shade toolbar to set the desired shading. This will maintain the selected shading until you choose otherwise. Use the orbit toolbar to rotate, clip, zoom the board.

Plotting: there are two ways to plot a 3d representation. First,rotate, zoom, etc. to the desired view. Using the standard AutoCAD Plot command, select Hide objects in the Plot options section. This will give you an unfilled plot, showing the solids. Or, in the View menu, select Render. Output the rendering to the Render window, and use the Render window to plot. This will give you fillled solids, colors, lighting effects, backgrounds...... Play with it - you can create some interesting plots.

I hope this covers some general solids questions. Play with the commands in the toolbars. You can learn (and break) a lot by experimenting.

[ltrakal]

Can I choose which layer I want to extrude? I mean, I think the best layer to do this 3D modeling is the Assembly layer top, that has all the component outlines closed. Now, will the geometry height be applied for this layer too? I'm making some tests but I can't see the assembly layer top outlines with a height, i just see the polylines on top layer oulines with height.

thanks