I have a simple (I guess) request for you 3D modeling gurus out there. I’ve been creating some footprint libs with associated 3D models, but some of the models I want to use don’t specify dimensions. Also, I scale the models to obtain different sizes of the component (say, a simple box-style capacitor). The X and Y dimensions of the model can be verified by the known dimensions of the silkscreen outline, but I haven’t found a way to easily check the Z (height) dimension.
Can someone perhaps make a quick 3D model of a simple ruler, just like one of the measurement scale footprints, but then in the Z-direction? Then I can add the ruler model on top of the existing model, and check the dimension. An X-Y-Z ruler would ofcourse be even more awesome.
I know this is a farfetched way of doing it, but it’s better than placing the component, rotating it 90 degrees so it’s in the plane of the pcb, adding the aforementioned measurement scale and tinkering away. With the ruler model, I can do it all in the footprint editor.
I just thought I’d ask Now that I think of it, I could use one of those generic 1x1x1 box models that were discussed here somewhere and scale those to the desired height. Hmm, that’s something to try tomorrow…
I was thinking more about a reference for non-engineers - marketing purposes.
Something like a coin, but coins are a poor choice as they are often unknown overseas
Thanks for all the input I’ve gone the way of scaling the 1x1x1 mm box and using that as a reference. Got about 75 components correctly scaled within 2 hours.
The ruler models that I found were too cumbersome to use quickly, and the grid (which I turned off, doh) isn’t that handy for my purpose. I haven’t really looked into FreeCAD (other than using it to convert step/iges to wrl) or the StepUp tools, but that’s something for the future. Those coin models - especially the dollar - look gorgeous though, great idea for non-engineers indeed!