A Mockup for a Redesigned Import/Export Page
In my opinian If I export a File, this dialog should appear every time.
Key Feature:
FreeCAD supports many import and export formats (see Import_Export). How would for example the DXF format be handled in your proposal?
I like the graphical representation.
Edit: moved thread to UI/UX subforum
I would add Tabs for 2D / 3D export.
For G-Code or similar special types I would add an additional Export Icon right of Tesselated BREP
For Settings that could not work for all Export I would add a type specific Box before and after the Graphic representation.
For the AutoCAD subject.
I propose to pop-up a missing Converter dialog and let user Choose to auto setup LibreCAD as converter ( auto Setup) or use DOA → user get redirected to e.g. https://wiki.freecadweb.org/FreeCAD_and_DWG_Import (I suppose it is not allowed to auto-setup this third party tool is not allowed)
The beauty of the AddonManager is that it’s possible to leverage GPL or other licenses without violating the LGPLv2 license that FreeCAD is under. So essentially any 3rd party importer/exporter (be it built by the community or even proprietary company who’s licensure allows for it to be used in an opensource context) is possible fair game.
Sorry for that. I’m not a developer also I only have knowledge about using a 3D CAD but I’m not a Company.
Any News on my Re-Design Request?
I’m sorry, time of most devs is pretty limited since everyone is doing this in their free time.
There might be some devs that would do stuff for money but even those are hard to find.
Although post like you do give people ideas and tells us the importance of working on ui so thanks for that!
Maybe some devs sees this and will pick it up, but so far it hasn’t happen.
For me I’d like to finish my own projects before doing anything new, that is hard enough eith a 40 hour job and a toddler.
That’s no Problem. I know the situation and fully understand it. I was not sure about how you organize Ideas. So I had a little hope to be some kind of promoting/prioritizing into a roadmap where devs could Pick things If they look for work.
It’s OK If it’s not working that way, but nearly a Year after my posts I was a little curious.
I like this proposal still. It’s good to bump threads so it receives more visibility. Right now everyone is busy with getting v0.21 out, BTW.
I learned that IFC allows deciding If you wish to Include Tessellation or geometric Bodies or both.
A colleague works with architects, and he has to tell them what data he needs as Geometric body.
But the IFC File he get contain every time the whole Building with all Furniture and storey. But from all the data in the file only the requested ones are available as geometric body.
So I assume that If you export a Freecad file to IFC you may need a possibility to select specific bodies which has to be geometric, and all other parts has to be exported as Tessellation. But I propose to allow also to limit these. I don’t see a need for exporting everything if the receiving partner only need one room.
I Propose an additional Selector which help Select the Data which has to be translated.
It should be placed right of the “Export Settings Body Management” as in my initial Mockup.
Choose for export.png
cc yorik
There are two different issues here… One issue is that indeed in IFC if you have 30 chairs, unless that chair specifically uses representation mapping, you will have 30 times the chair geometry in your file. But 1) FreeCAD uses representation mapping if your chairs are clones one of the other, and 2) it’s the same problem with any app or file format.
The second issue is about tessellated or defined geometry. In tessellated geometry the objects are represented by a bunch of triangular facets, while when using defined geometry, for example a square column is defined by a square with an extrusion direction and size.
I don’t see what would be the advantage of forcing an object to be tessellated, because 1) defined geometry is in 99% of the cases much, much shorter, simpler, faster than writing triangles, and 2) almost any app out there can convert that to triangles if needed.
Basically, it’s the same thing as a vector drawing. If you export it as vectors, you can still modify the drawing. If you export it as bitmap, you loose all the editing information. So when you have the vectors, it’s always best to save as vectors.
The same thing applies here. If you export a column as an extruded rectangle, any app opening the file will be able to change the rectangle or extrusion size. If you export it as a bunch of triangles, your file will be heavier and you won’t be able to edit the column any more.
To resume, it’s always better to export the geometric construction, when we have it. When we don’t, for example an already triangulated chair that you downloaded from a furniture website, there is nothing we can do there, and that object is exported triangulated.
IFC seems in my opinian a relly interestinf filetype.
As seen here, IFC Files I get are mostly extremely short. And converting in any case also other CAD systems expand the size many times.
On an Experiment in SolidWorks I got a 32MB file and got 2GB of SolidWorks files. While researching I assumed that Tessellated Data are way better to compact.