Hello Seth,

Thanks. I took a day before writing to look at what would need to be done
assuming no migration to dxflib. I will take a look now and make sure I
haven't underestimated the complexity of migrating.

John



On Mon, Jun 5, 2023, 12:33 Seth Hillbrand <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi John,
>
> The plotter code pre-dates the dxflib import code by some number of
> years.  That is the simple reason why the library isn't used for plotting.
>
> If you were to revise the dxf plotting code to use dxflib, I doubt anyone
> would have any heartburn over this change as long as you worked within the
> PLOTTER class.
>
> As to advice on the approach, I'd start with mapping out the calls you
> need and ensuring that the overloads in DXF_PLOTTER will work with the
> calling structure expected by dxflib
>
> Let us know if you'd like to be assigned the issue in GitLab.
>
> Seth
>
>
> [image: KiCad Services Corporation Logo]
> Seth Hillbrand
> *Lead Developer*
> +1-530-302-5483‬
> Long Beach, CA
> www.kipro-pcb.com    [email protected]
>
>
> On Sun, Jun 4, 2023 at 9:12 PM John Timms <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> I am new to the project and interested in contributing on Issue
>> #2446 DXF export should export dimension items as DXF dimensions
>> (lp:#1832717) <https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/issues/2446>.
>>
>> The 7.0.0 release does not plot KiCad dimension items at all with the
>> option "Plot graphic items using their contours" selected. With the option
>> de-selected, then KiCad dimension items are plotted using LINE entities, as
>> stated in the issue.
>>
>> Looking at what would be required to implement the DXF standard's
>> DIMENSION entity, the minimum change would involve changes to
>> DXF_PLOTTER::StartPlot()
>> <https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/blob/7.0/common/plotters/DXF_plotter.cpp?ref_type=heads#L173>
>>  (The
>> DIMENSION entities require a BLOCKS section to be defined.) in addition to
>> whatever changes will be needed to the rest of the DXF plotting code.
>>
>> Because KiCad allows a number of customizations to the appearance of
>> KiCad dimension items, the "minimal change" would likely not result in
>> efficiently reproducing the dimension items exactly as they appear in KiCad
>> in the DXF plot output.
>>
>> I see that QCAD's dxflib is already included in thirdparty, I assume this
>> is used for DXF import? Rather than reinventing the wheel for plotting
>> DIMENSION entities, what if dxflib was used for DXF plotting also?
>>
>> I assume there is a good reason for the DXF plotter being the way it is
>> now. Is there a specific design intent that prevents using dxflib to plot?
>> In general, could I get some advice on what kind of approach to take, what
>> kind of contribution would be most helpful?
>>
>> John
>>
>>
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