[Gmsh] importing/merging geometries

[David Colignon]

Hi Bart,

Gmsh already use the OpenCascade library to import STEP files, which is the format we recommend (instead of IGES).

To build your geometry, you can try Salome ( http://salome-platform.org/ ), which also use OpenCascade.

You can test it easily with a Live DVD : http://caelinux.com/CMS/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=49&Itemid=40

Regards,

Dave

-- 
David Colignon, Ph.D.
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On 22/03/11 16:35, Bart Vandewoestyne wrote:
> Hello list,
>
> Up until now, I have been working with simple, quite academic 2D
> geometries that I could easily 'program' as a .geo file.
>
> As I will switch to 3D in the near future and my geometries might
> become more complex and less academic, I think I will have to
> leave gmsh for creating my geometries...  For complex 3D solid
> modeling or CAD, I have the impression that gmsh is rather
> limited (please correct me if I'm wrong) and I will probably need
> to switch to a more dedicated 3D solid modeling or CAD tool that
> has a nice and intuitive GUI and which allows me to create my 3D
> geometries interactively.
>
> Let's call '3D-tool' the external tool that I will use for my 3D
> solid modeling, then I have two questions:
>
> 1) What file format should my 3D-tool be able to export to?  What
> is the best file format to use for maximum compatibility and ease
> of use in gmsh? (I prefer open file formats... so if there is one
> to recommend here, I would be happy to hear).
>
> 2) Knowing that I am only interested in Open Source software that
> runs on both Linux and Windows, what would probably be the best
> 3D solid modeling / CAD tool to use?  My first google searches
> resulted in BRL-CAD, FreeCAD and Open CASCADE
>
>    http://brlcad.org/
>    http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/free-cad/index.php?title=Main_Page
>    http://www.opencascade.org/
>
> Is any of these three preferable in combination with gmsh?  Or are
> there even other better programs?
>
> Kind regards,
> Bart
>