IMPORTING 3D VISUAL MODELS

Overview

Visual Models (3DS files) can be imported into the 3D Viewer via the following simple procedure:

To use a 3D model created in another package:

1. Export the model from your package as a single object in the 3DS file format.
2. Place the 3DS file in the library directory of your Proteus installation. Place the footprint in ARES and select the 3D Visualisation option from the resulting context menu. You will then be presented with something similar to the below:
   
   
3. Type in the File name including the extension
4. Type in the name of the object within the 3DS file that you wish to display. 3DS files can hold multiple components and each component can and should be given a name. For example, using Blender (www.blender.org) - which is free - you set the name of the object in the top left and is also displayed bottom right:
   
   

99% of the reason that the 3D model does not appear, is because the user has this field wrong.

The 3D Viewer operates is terms of numbers and not in terms of physical dimensions. You must therefore specify what size a single unit is. This is typically 1mm, 1in, 1cm etc.

Finally, it is possible that the model may require an X or Y offset to position it correctly. You can therefore adjust the position using the X/Y Offset fields.

For example, an Electrolytic Radial capacitor would be as follows:

Guidelines for Model Creation in Another Package

The key to any good 3D model is sufficient detail that it looks correct from the distance the user is likely to use, while at the same time keeping the number of polygons that make up the 3D model low enough that the display generation and update will be reasonably fast.

A classic example of where the above two criteria conflict is in a cylinder: the number of facets that make up the approximation of a cylinder has to be such that the stepping is not obvious, whilst at the same time too many facets will quickly produce a high polygon count that could quickly swamp the rendering pipeline's processing resources, this problem can be further compounded when the 3D model in question is merely a small radial capacitor that no one would even notice missing or is perhaps obscured by other components.

Based on the above, here are some simple guidelines for creating a good quality 3D component.

1. Give the model sufficient detail that the object is representative of the component and that the user would be able to identify the approximate type of component, though not necessarily the specific component.
2. Use as few polygons as you can get away with: if you model has twice as many polygons as is required your model will be twice as slow to draw, this is not normally a problem for one component but if you have PCB with 50 of them on you may get problems.
3. One of the areas where excessive polygons occur is on smoothed non planar shapes: curves. The trick here is, where possible, to use smoothing, this causes a face to look curved without actually having to be curved.
4. Keep an eye on the number of vertices and faces in a model, if they are hitting the thousands and it is not a particularly complex part, you are likely making the model excessively detailed or wasting polygons.
5. Do not be afraid of hand editing the results that are produced by the 3D editing package's own algorithms, often they do not produce optimal results.
6. The import routine assumes a model is a single object in the *.3DS file, it is quite possible that you will have to merge multiple objects to create a final object. You will also have to name that object appropriately.