has anyone used the ECAD IDF to Alibre translator lately?

[tenthwave]

Hi All
I need to communicate with my PCB board designer. I understand (from old forum posts) that the IDF format is a standard for that purpose and that a translator by ECAD worked with previous Alibre releases. Will this translator work with Alibre 2018? Is there currently a better way for the two of us to exchange precise component placements?

 

[Lew_Merrick]

Hi All
I need to communicate with my PCB board designer. I understand (from old forum posts) that the IDF format is a standard for that purpose and that a translator by ECAD worked with previous Alibre releases. Will this translator work with Alibre 2018? Is there currently a better way for the two of us to exchange precise component placements?

10th -- I cannot remember the last time I used a Gerber IDF as "input" from ECAD. 100% of ECAD inputs over the past few decades coming to me have been in DXF. ???

 

[DavidJ]

Listed on the Alibre web site - with contact details
https://www.alibre.com/ecosystem-pcb/

 

[tenthwave]

Thanks again... this forum is very useful

It appears that the desktop-eda.com program "Alibre IDF Modeler" will take an IDF (Intermediate File Format) file from my PCB designer and create an Alibre Assembly from it. That would be useful but it seems limited for two-way communication. The Mentor PADS ECAD MCAD Collaborator using IDX (Incremental Data Exchange) files that HE would buy might be better but could be vast overkill for our (limited budget) project. It looks like we will stick with trading STEP files for the moment.

 

[simonb65]

I export GBR, ODB++ or CAD files for my PCB production house.

For creating 3D models from GBR and CAD, I wrote my own tool (maybe I should polish it up and sell it as an official Alibre add-on!!) ... it creates a jpg label for the artwork (keyshot label) and directly drives Alibre for creating the 3D geometry. Export that to a bip, add the label and a material library and ...

JPG Label


Alibre Model


Keyshot Render


BOOM !

 

[Max]

For creating 3D models from GBR and CAD, I wrote my own tool (maybe I should polish it up and sell it as an official Alibre add-on!!)

Yes and yes! This is awesome

 

[JL82]

I have received 3D models of the circuit boards from the PCB designer. The most common PCB Design softwares create a STEP files for a mechanical designer.

 

[PPi]

I export GBR, ODB++ or CAD files for my PCB production house.

For creating 3D models from GBR and CAD, I wrote my own tool (maybe I should polish it up and sell it as an official Alibre add-on!!) ... it creates a jpg label for the artwork (keyshot label) and directly drives Alibre for creating the 3D geometry. Export that to a bip, add the label and a material library and ...

Have you thought any further about publishing this tool since this post? After Autodesk pulled plug out from ecad.io, FreeCAD IDF importers being less or more limited and "official" Alibre IDF importer being too broken to run on most Alibre releases since 2011, I'm starting to get really grumpy about lack of decent, affordable ways to create 3D models out from PCB with components and everything.

 

[simonb65]

Have you thought any further about publishing this tool since this post? After Autodesk pulled plug out from ecad.io, FreeCAD IDF importers being less or more limited and "official" Alibre IDF importer being too broken to run on most Alibre releases since 2011, I'm starting to get really grumpy about lack of decent, affordable ways to create 3D models out from PCB with components and everything.

It was a side project, and thrown together and serves as an internal tool in order to support my own business. I guess if, like you, others see value in it too, then I'll look at polishing it up and possibly making an official product out out it. There does seem to be a lack of this kind of tool and I'm not impressed by the current IDF based packages ... hence the reason I wrote my own.

Due to current and future work commitments though, I couldn't promise when something may be available!