3D Models & Footprint Share

Hello, i am sharing my KiCAD 3D models :slight_smile: . You can download my KiCAD and other models for free. Just follow this link https://grabcad.com/jimmi.henry-1/models. Unfortunately you have to be logged in in order to download stuff on GrabCAD, without a login it is still possible to load 3D models into the browser for viewing measuring and further inspection. My latest creation are resistors, you may like to make a 1K Ohm resistor stand out? I got you covered…

2 Likes

Looks quite good / beautiful. A bit less shiny would be more realistic though. I suppose these are (at least partly) script generated. Do you also have some info on how you made them?

… And on how to use them… By default KiCad just has a single resistor, and changing the 3D model for each resistor manually is quite a bore. It would be mostly automatic once you’re using database driven libraries.

Quite a few years ago (5 to 7 I guess), there was a long thread on this forum about 3D models, and whether it would be worth to generate resistors with all the color bands. I think that back then the judgement that the usage to effort ratio was a bit too low.

To me, THT resistors are for breadboards, and not for PCB’s. I do plan breadboard and matrix board layouts in KiCad sometimes, but when I do so, I’m not too concerned with the details. For people making electronics tutorials and such this would be more interesting. Also, for beginners, the carbon film resistors with one less color band are easier to learn. Do you have those too?

1 Like

Cool, thanks for your collection of models. Bookmarked. They look so good that I almost want to make pictures of boards in 3D to show off and not bother with fabrication. Wait, what am I saying? :crazy_face:

1 Like

Hi Paulvdh,

the models are made with FreeCAD than generated and exported via the KiCADStepUp plugin. I made one model. Than created the color variations by typing the color values for Step and VRML by hand.

Used software: KiCAD v5.1.12; FreeCAD 0.21.2; Notepad++; Windows 7.

Basically i just like to design 3D models, every time i get sidetracked (more or less) you will find a new KiCAD model. I am into mechanical design and have little to no knowledge of electronics…

Some of my GrabCAD models have native 3D-FreeCAD files stored. This shows how the part is designed and allows altering it to the desired needs.

You may also find symbol-librarys and footprints alongside STEP and VRML files in my models.

Cheers Jimmi

1 Like

Thank you Retiredfeline, i DIG the virtual/artificial plastic look and believe it complements the KiCAD render engine. :laughing:

Cheers Jimmi

You probably want to work on some fun projects in your spare time, and that is of course great, especially if you use FreeCAD :slight_smile: and share your work. But maybe you are also interested to be a bit more “formal”. If you look at the Official KiCad Libraries on gitlab, then you can find scripts for generation of 3D models, and also a directory with the sources of 3D models, and that already has a bunch of FreeCAD drawings in them. If you’re interested to work with that then

Contributing to KiCad’s libraries is a bit more involved then uploading your stuff on grabcad. It mostly involves interacting with GIT, and there are some
special requirements for contributing 3D models.

You can also have a look on how other 3D models for KiCad are built in: Contribute | KiCad and also see what’s missing etc.

Would you like to have a look on this script (to generate WRL variants) I made some years ago:
https://forum.kicad.info/t/i-created-a-new-kicad3dmodels-library/

It generates all variants of colors using simple WRL files which include the base model WRL file.

If you would like to provide me the STEP models (with a friendly license), I can use it create new (WRL) variants for those resistors or other models (eg: vertical resistors, etc)