--- title: "PINE64 released 84 MB of PinePhone geometry. It is not the source code" locale: "en" url: "https://irz.fr/en/articles/pinephone-full-step-not-source-cad-en" markdown_url: "https://irz.fr/en/articles/pinephone-full-step-not-source-cad-en.md" category: "tech" tags: ["PinePhone", "PINE64", "CAD", "STEP", "repair", "open hardware", "3D"] published_at: "2026-08-21T13:18:00.000Z" author: "Camille Morel" translation: "https://irz.fr/fr/articles/pinephone-full-step-not-source-cad-fr.md" --- # PINE64 released 84 MB of PinePhone geometry. It is not the source code PINE64 released the full PinePhone STEP assembly. IRZ opened its 84.2 MB: 265 products and 927 assembly occurrences, in a 2020 geometry export rather than the native parametric CAD. On July 25, PINE64 announced a “full 3D file” for the PinePhone and PinePhone Pro, attaching an appealing promise to it: owners could 3D-print some replacement parts and design custom pieces around the phone's real geometry.[1](https://pine64.org/2026/07/25/pinephone3dfiles_2026/) Until now, the public mechanical documentation centered mainly on the removable back cover, whereas the new link points to `PinePhone_and_Pro_case_asm.stp`, a file large enough to make the difference obvious before it is even opened.[2](https://files.pine64.org/doc/PinePhone/PinePhone_and_Pro_case_asm.stp) IRZ downloaded both generations of file and found a much larger jump than the announcement alone suggests: the older back-cover STEP is **5,591,575 bytes** and defines eight products, while the new one is **84,217,768 bytes**, with **265 product definitions**, **927 assembly occurrences**, **243 B-Rep solids** and **37,327 advanced faces**. Names inside it include `PCB`, `LCD-1809-GT`, `SAMSUNG-3000MHA`, cameras, FPC assemblies, SIM geometry, shells and a long list of electronic packages, so the release goes far beyond a slightly improved outer skin and instead captures a highly detailed mechanical snapshot of the assembly. The interesting caveat is that “full file” and “full source” describe two different things. ## Six years The most revealing detail sits in the first six lines, where the header identifies `PRO/ENGINEER BY PARAMETRIC TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION`, dates the file to **December 2, 2020**, and declares STEP AP214, a standardized exchange format used to move geometry and assembly information between CAD systems.[2](https://files.pine64.org/doc/PinePhone/PinePhone_and_Pro_case_asm.stp) Rather than modelling the assembly for the end of the phone's commercial life, PINE64 has **published in 2026 an export made almost six years earlier**. That timing matches the company's own framing, since the announcement calls the release a possible “final hurrah” for this PinePhone generation while stressing that the devices themselves remain alive in several mobile Linux projects.[1](https://pine64.org/2026/07/25/pinephone3dfiles_2026/) Timing changes the meaning of the file because complete mechanical data looks like an industrial asset during production, yet the same geometry can become community maintenance infrastructure once a product line is no longer the priority. > **From back cover to phone** > Quantitative comparison of the old PinePhone back-cover STEP and the full assembly released in 2026. > - The new STEP is not just a more detailed back cover > - Old back cover > - 5.6 MB 8 products · 7 occurrences > - 2026 assembly > - 84.2 MB 265 products · 927 occurrences > - IRZ audit of ISO-10303-21 entities: 243 B-Rep solids and 37,327 advanced faces in the new file. > IRZ compared the two STEP files distributed by PINE64. These counts describe file entities, not a count of unique physical parts ready to print. ## Very useful STEP solves a large part of the “I do not own your CAD package” problem because FreeCAD, SolidWorks, Fusion, Creo and many other tools can import this family of formats. When designing something that must clear a camera, follow a chassis edge, line up with a button or fit around an internal feature, the actual solid geometry is much more useful than measuring a finished phone with calipers. PINE64 already shows a practical result through community member JF, who used the release while working on a new printed back cover; the shared images show both the CAD work and the physical part.[1](https://pine64.org/2026/07/25/pinephone3dfiles_2026/) The PinePhone is unusually suited to that kind of modification because its back is removable and six pogo pins expose signals for extensions; PINE64 documents add-ons that replace the back cover entirely, including the keyboard, wireless charging, fingerprint and LoRa accessories.[4](https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_Hardware_Accessory_Compatibility) > Illustration: Custom PinePhone back cover being designed in CAD from the released 3D model. JF has already used the released geometry for a custom back cover. For this kind of accessory, exact camera, button, edge and contact geometry is much more useful than a simple dimension drawing. Credit: [JF / PINE64 community](https://pine64.org/2026/07/25/pinephone3dfiles_2026/). There is a quieter repair benefit too, because **the geometric reference can survive the spare part**: if a bracket, spacer or section of enclosure becomes unavailable, the volume it needs to occupy relative to the rest of the phone is still documented. None of this makes every solid in the STEP directly printable, since an injection-molded component may depend on material flexibility, ribs, clips or process assumptions that do not transfer cleanly to FDM; the practical change is simply that a repair no longer has to begin from photographs. ## Not source Terminology matters here because the published STEP is a **neutral exchange representation**, not the native modelling environment in which the phone was designed. It preserves surfaces, solids and assembly relations, but our audit of the file finds no parametric feature history, editable design sketches or native feature tree from the original CAD. That is normal for this sort of export: it carries the geometric result between tools rather than every decision used to construct it. The Open Source Hardware Association draws the line explicitly: its definition says that hardware source, the design from which the object is made, should be available in the **preferred format for making modifications**,[5](https://oshwa.org/definition/) while its FAQ adds that mechanical projects should release the original CAD files because STEP, IGES and STL are useful intermediate formats rather than substitutes for those originals.[6](https://oshwa.org/resources/open-source-hardware-faq/) The distinction matters precisely because the STEP is useful: it may be the most convenient file to give someone who wants to make an accessory tomorrow without owning the factory's CAD software, even though it lacks the layer that makes structural design changes behave as naturally as they did in the native model. Deleting a boss or cutting a new opening after import is perfectly possible, but changing “phone width” and expecting constraints, fillets, holes and dependent parts to recompute cleanly is a different job; the file is editable, then, without being “source” in the strongest hardware sense. ## License gap There is another difference, this time legal: PINE64's post clearly invites custom parts and talks about self-repair,[1](https://pine64.org/2026/07/25/pinephone3dfiles_2026/) yet IRZ found **no explicit license in the STEP file or on the release page**, while the wiki link describes the release only as provided “as-is”.[3](https://pine64.org/documentation/PinePhone/Further_information/Schematics_and_certifications/) That differs from the PinePhone press assets, where PINE64 explicitly labels files CC0 or CC BY,[7](https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_Press) and leaves an encouraged use case in a blog post doing work that a formal open license would normally state directly. OSHWA also treats licensing as part of opening hardware: downstream users need permission to modify, reproduce and redistribute the design and derived hardware.[5](https://oshwa.org/definition/) To be sure, none of this makes the STEP useless; it means the release is best described accurately as **very generous source-available geometry whose reuse terms are less explicit than a formally licensed OSHW project**. ## The PCB A similar boundary appears in the electronics, where PINE64 has long published schematics for several PinePhone revisions, component placement drawings for some boards and a component list,[3](https://pine64.org/documentation/PinePhone/Further_information/Schematics_and_certifications/) already far more hardware documentation than most smartphone makers provide. The current schematics page, however, does not list the native PCB layout sources or production Gerbers for the shipping PinePhone mainboard. The new STEP contains the PCB and a surprising number of electronic packages, but 3D geometry for a 0402 resistor obviously does not recreate the board routing or fabrication data. This is why the release should not be inflated into “you can now print a PinePhone.” Displays, batteries, modem, cameras, antennas, flex assemblies and PCBs still belong to entirely different manufacturing chains. The narrower and genuinely valuable change is that **the mechanics are no longer a geometric black box**. ## After production That narrower change may be the most interesting part of the release. Consumer hardware is usually best documented while it is being sold, then tooling, suppliers and internal files gradually disappear behind the finished product. PINE64 is doing almost the reverse here: an industrial export dated 2020 becomes public in 2026 as this generation moves away from the center of the company's roadmap.[1](https://pine64.org/2026/07/25/pinephone3dfiles_2026/)[2](https://files.pine64.org/doc/PinePhone/PinePhone_and_Pro_case_asm.stp) The file has real gaps: native CAD is absent, the license should be clearer, and no STEP can resurrect injection molds or the electronics supply chain. Even so, it preserves something that often vanishes exactly when a device begins to need repair: **the exact shape of what it was**. For maintaining a product after its maker, a dimension drawing helps, an STL helps more, and an 84 MB STEP assembly helps a great deal, although a properly licensed parametric source file would still be better. Hardware openness therefore looks less like a switch here than a stack of layers released over time: schematics, components, connectors, the back cover and now the full mechanical assembly. The last layer arrives almost six years after it was exported, which is late for designing the phone but may be exactly when it matters for **keeping the phone alive after its tooling disappears**. ## References 1. [PINE64, Full PinePhone 3D File Released, July 25 2026](https://pine64.org/2026/07/25/pinephone3dfiles_2026/) 2. [PINE64, PinePhone and PinePhone Pro case 3D STEP assembly](https://files.pine64.org/doc/PinePhone/PinePhone_and_Pro_case_asm.stp) 3. [PINE64, PinePhone documentation — schematics and certifications](https://pine64.org/documentation/PinePhone/Further_information/Schematics_and_certifications/) 4. [PINE64, PinePhone hardware accessories and pogo pins](https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_Hardware_Accessory_Compatibility) 5. [OSHWA, Open Source Hardware Definition](https://oshwa.org/definition/) 6. [OSHWA, Open Source Hardware FAQ — files needed to build and modify hardware](https://oshwa.org/resources/open-source-hardware-faq/) 7. [PINE64, PinePhone Press — media licenses](https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_Press)