Custom VRML export pcb colors

[m]

export VRML function doesn't conserve the colors of board, tracks, solder mask, silk screen as selected in 3d-viewer

[Joan (joanthesparky)]

IHMO incomplete report.. needs detailed kicad version and some steps to reproduce, preferable the pcbnew (ini) file excerpt of the settings for the 3d viewer elements (colors, etc).

[m (easyw)]

sorry,
here the details:
- kicad all releases from stable on
- OS: all platforms
- the color of the exporting board is hard-coded in
http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~kicad-product-committers/kicad/product/view/head:/pcbnew/exporters/export_vrml.cpp
line 176 and following...

how to reproduce the problem:

open a board, export the board to VRML through the menu
- File
    - Export
       - VRML
the VRML model of the board will have
PCB color, PCB Tracks color, SILK color as coded (green, dark green, white)

change the color to display the board in 3d-viewer (Realistic Mode ON) with the menu
- Preferences
    - Choose Colors
       - Solder Mask Color
change the Solder Mask color e.g. to Blue
display the nice Blue board

then export your VRML to the above File menu, and you'll get a green board instead of blue ...

[Jan-Åke Larsson (jalar)]

Still present in latest nightly.

[kerem (kekat)]

I have tried to implement this feature but I cannot find which colors to take and pass to the VRML exporter for consumption. My best guess is:

const CINFO3D_VISU& settings = viewer->GetSettings();

const auto to_vrml_color = []( SFVEC3D color ) {
    return VRML_COLOR( color.r, color.g, color.b );
};

colors[VRML_COLOR_PCB] = to_vrml_color( settings.m_BoardBodyColor );
colors[VRML_COLOR_TRACK] = to_vrml_color( settings.m_CopperColor );
colors[VRML_COLOR_SILK] = to_vrml_color( settings.m_SilkScreenColor );

which gives a seemingly low-quality rendering as attached.

I think the current VRML exporter does not support solder mask color.

[Seth Hillbrand (sethh)]

@kekat- I'm not sure what errors you were seeing when compiling that, but it wouldn't compile cleanly because VRML_COLOR() takes 12 parameters:
-RGB in diffuse
-RGB in specular
-RGB emission
-Ambient level
-Transparency
-Reflectivity (shiny-ness)

Using only 3 will definitely get you weird results. For decent results, set the color to the diffuse color, the specular color to ~10-15% of the diffuse color, emission to 0,0,0, ambient to ~0.8, transparency to 0 and shiny-ness to 0.01-0.04.

[kerem (kekat)]

@sethh, I only included part of the patch that is relevant for matching CINFO3D_VISU colors to VRML_COLORs.

I am attaching the full diff, unfortunately, I have renamed _clangformat to .clangformat and all of the file is auto-formatted with it. If it would be appropriate to continue with it, I can clean it up.

Diff includes this constructor:

+ VRML_COLOR( float r, float g, float b, float tr = 0 )
+ : VRML_COLOR( r, g, b, 0.1 * r, 0.1 * g, 0.1 * b, 0, 0, 0, 0.8, tr, 0.02 )

[m (easyw)]

Is there any update on this?
It would be nice to have at least the option to export among few presets for Mask and Tracks...
https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/colorswatchback.jpg

[m (easyw)]

the related Green preset is:
        // pcb green
        colors[ VRML_COLOR_PCB ] = VRML_COLOR( .07, .3, .12, .01, .03, .01,
                                                  0, 0, 0, 0.8, 0, 0.02 );
        // track green
        colors[ VRML_COLOR_TRACK ] = VRML_COLOR( .08, .5, .1, .01, .05, .01,
                                                  0, 0, 0, 0.8, 0, 0.02 );
        // silkscreen white
        colors[ VRML_COLOR_SILK ] = VRML_COLOR( .9, .9, .9, .1, .1, .1,
                                                  0, 0, 0, 0.9, 0, 0.02 );
        // pad silver
        colors[ VRML_COLOR_TIN ] = VRML_COLOR( .749, .756, .761, .749, .756, .761,
                                                  0, 0, 0, 0.8, 0, 0.8 );

[KiCad Janitor (kicad-janitor)]

KiCad bug tracker has moved to Gitlab. This report is now available here: https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/issues/2009