CAD Converter for DXF, STL, etc.

[chase-roohms]

Problem Statement

As a user I would like to be able to convert CAD files between different formats, or get picture renders of them without running another piece of software. It would be great if transmute could make this conversion for me.

I would also sometimes like to just render an image or pdf of the cad file I am working on, and there isn't a great screenshot generator I can use

Proposed Solution

Warning

aspose-cad is not yet updated for python 3.13, but is the desired implementation. Please see this support ticket for the status on their side

Implement a new converter (following existing converter patterns) for cad file conversions. cad -> image would be cool as well like a "rendering" conversion

Alternatives Considered

No response

Additional Context

This is a hard task that requires a bit of familiarity with Transmute, check out some of our good first issues or easy tasks to get familiar before attempting this one

[ashrafulislambd]

It would be great if DWG file specs were open source. Unfortunately, it's proprietary.

[chase-roohms]

It would be great if DWG file specs were open source. Unfortunately, it's proprietary.

Yeah, I think even aspose-cad which is one of the better libraries I have found only supports reading from DWG, probably will have to handle that as a input only format and not allow writing to DWGs

[ashrafulislambd]

@chase-roohms As aspose-cad is not supported in python 3.13, what about creating another service in older python version for handling that part only?

[chase-roohms]

@chase-roohms As aspose-cad is not supported in python 3.13, what about creating another service in older python version for handling that part only?

I considered that, or potentially downgrading to python3.11-slim for the base image, I am doing some research still on the best route so we are not later trapped on some old python version or stuck with a sidecar image just for CAD files

[chase-roohms]

Follow up on this one, reached out to the aspose team, see details: https://forum.aspose.com/t/aspose-cad-for-python-3-13/326347

We have created CADPYTHON-474 to investigate the feasibility to support 3.13.

Hopefully it is not a long wait for this, this in my opinion is not some blocker issue for anyone as it has only been reported internally, we can reanalyze if someone would leave addition comments / "vote" here 👍

[chase-roohms]

Just a small update the issue is now in progress on Aspose's side