Comment 8 for bug 698827

Blender seems to support the OpenCascade file format in some way, as advertised in the link:

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/File_Formats

There is an app called OpenSCAD which is based on OpenCascade.

The file format op OpenSCAD is a subset of the C-labguage, easy to grasp and straightforward and describes primitives, not faces or vertices (similar to VRML, which is lower in the "food chain").

Furthermore the OpenSCAD C-language supports macros and functions as to allow for parametric use of 3D-models (one only needs to create a prototype part once, and then inherit from that prototype for other sized parts of the same shape).

This would lead to a (feasible) workflow like:

pcb --> OpenSCAD --> Blender

which may be scriptable to some extent (Makefile).

OpenSCAD has the feature of being able to extrude closed polyline shapes (lines, arcs, circles), and thus create a pcb board from an outline in a DXF file (drawn with Qcad or similar),

Exporting from OpenSCAD to a stl format (standard Lithography) for creating mock ups with a plastruder/replicator is possible as well.

Please have a look at:

http://www.openscad.org/