Oh I never heard of .step files, (first google hit.)
So then your pcb part "foot prints" have to be 3-D? (Sounds like more time spent making library modules.)
Normally I don't do that much CAD design, I was doing something the other day with Draftsights free 2-D package. But it had been so long I'd forgotten how to fly it.. use it or lose it.
George H.
It's the general interchange format between high-end cad programs.
The files are all ascii, very prolix, enormous. They zip nicely.
Our PADS parts are all 2D. If we want a 3D model of a PC board, we use SolidWorks, starting with the DXF from PADS. We dump in 3D models of things like connectors and PEMs and such, things that interface with panels and boxes. If we wanted to show the ICs and such in 3D (which we rarely do) SolidWorks would let us stretch parts vertically.
SolidWorks is great fun. The viewer is free. Given a model, you can spin it in space and peek inside and stuff. The viewer won't let you
*get* inside and look around, which the full version does. It does allow slices, which can be useful.Like this:
Lots of nanohenries.
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