3D models not showing in PCB editor? Vol. 2

Layout 3D Models
1

Hi there,
I have the same problem as @pigeon here.

Bildschirmfoto vom 2024-08-26 14-15-00
Bildschirmfoto vom 2024-08-26 14-15-00862Ă—805 61.3 KB

The 3D models are properly displayed in KiCad6 but not at all in KiCad8. Even if I add the absolute path, there is nothing coming up.

I have

Application: KiCad Footprint Editor x86_64 on x86_64

Version: 8.0.3, release build

Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.2.4
FreeType 2.11.1
HarfBuzz 8.3.0
FontConfig 2.13.1
libcurl/7.81.0 OpenSSL/3.0.2 zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.9 zstd/1.4.8 libidn2/2.3.2 libpsl/0.21.2 (+libidn2/2.3.2) libssh/0.9.6/openssl/zlib nghttp2/1.43.0 librtmp/2.3 OpenLDAP/2.5.17

Platform: Ubuntu Core 22, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK, X11, gnome, x11
OpenGL: Intel, Mesa Intel(R) Graphics (RPL-P), 4.6 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 23.2.1-1ubuntu3.1~22.04.2

Build Info:
Date: Jun 28 2024 00:06:25
wxWidgets: 3.2.4 (wchar_t,wx containers) GTK+ 3.24
Boost: 1.74.0
OCC: 7.5.1
Curl: 7.81.0
ngspice: 36
Compiler: GCC 11.2.0 with C++ ABI 1016

Build settings:
KICAD_USE_EGL=ON

Any ideas what could be the problem?

2

First, do you have a link to his thread, that gives an idea of whhat has already been tried.
Second, V8.0.3 on a Linux system? That’s two months old. I’m starting to wonder V8.0.6 has not been released yet. Maybe it’s the holiday season.

For the actual problem, first verify that the 3D models have been actually installed. In some Linux distributions these are in a separate (optional) repository. On my system /usr/share/kicad/3dmodels/ has a size of 5.5GiB.

3

I updated my post with the link.

You meant V8.0.3?

The company where I just started still uses KiCad6 which came with the latest Debian release (Here I described the situation.)
But with all of your and my concerns, the CEOs now handed it over to me to evaluate KiCad8 and check for compatibility with the existing projects.
Regarding the version, my system got the latest available released version via snappy.

We only use our custom libraries. Does your hint also apply to our scenario?

4

Oops, yes, V8.0.4 I corrected that.
KiCad is making significant progress with each yearly mayor release. For a company I would recommend waiting at least to th3 3rd or 4th bug fix release before upgrading. It’s also common to stay one mayor version behind and then only use the last bug fix update of a mayor version. At the moment that is the KiCad-7.0.11-Release

I do not understand. Why would you expect there to be 3D models if you only use your own libraries? If you only use your own libraries, you also have to make your own 3D models and link them yourself.

But why only use your own libraries in the first place? KiCad’s own libraries are quite good, but there are of course no guarantee that they are perfect. A normal approach is to install KiCad’s own libraries, but add a verification step over all symbols and footprints you take out of KiCad’s libraries. This way you can make more use of what all the other people have created before you, while still having your own quality assurance.

5

Snaps have issues accessing 3D models. See this topic: 3d viewer does not show any components

Best you install native packages if they are available.

2 Likes
6

Of course not! :sweat_smile:
Everything is there. If you look closer on my screenshot you can see that there is a path to our libraries.
Also I mentioned that the 3D model visibility is working in KiCad6.

That’s company policy. To have maximum control over the design building blocks.

7

Hm first I thought, this must be the reason, but now I doubt it.
First, KiCad8 loads all sch and pcb files properly but not the 3D files and ALL folders are located in my /home directory (one suggestion from the other thread was to copy everything in a /home path)
Second, when I want to select a 3D model, in the selection window not even a preview of the 3D models is displayed

image
image759Ă—543 42.8 KB

So the reason must lay somewhere else.

8

Did you also change KICAD8_3DMODEL_DIR to the new location?

And also you must not have any definitions for KICAD[67]_3DMODEL_DIR so that in their absence KiCad will use KICAD8_3DMODEL_DIR for those.

9

Yes, that was the first thing I did.
Also I replaced the “KISYS3DMOD” inside the pcb files with “KICAD6_3DMODEL_DIR”.
But this is all non relevant when you have this behavior:

image
image1920Ă—717 155 KB

That’s the 3D viewer and the PCB exported as step. Makes no sense :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

10

:person_shrugging:

11

There seems to be a underlying problem with handling of step files in kicad rn, because it’s also not able to replace wrl models during step export anymore. I created a Bug report for this a few weeks back already, sadly it hasn’t gotten any attention yet: