this is the libraries
in my case i have the 3d libraries installed my default. but instead of 3d component showing at the 3d viewer, i only see pads
Did you check that the 3d model exists for your particular footprint?
yes it does looking at this footprint. if i try to view the component with 3d viewer this is what shows. 
. and this is the view:
but after routing, when i tried to view it , i got only the pads without components on it
From that we can conclude that the 3d plugin works. (Meaning the stuff suggested by @kammutierspule does not apply to you.)
Now we need to find out why your pcb does not render. Did you use the exact same footprint as you used for creating the screenshots above in your pcb?
When importing a footprint into the pcb it stores its 3d settings in the pcb_new file. So it could be that you had placed a footprint with different settings. (Meaning you would need to update the footprint)
If it is an older project than it might be that it has the footprints from version 4. These had slightly different names. (So they search for a differently named 3d model than you have.)
To test this you can insert the footprint manually. On the right side of pcb_new there is a button for adding footprints (looks like a small SOIC package with green leads) This will allow you to add the footprint you just checked to the pcb. After that check the 3d view.
If you do not see it in this test then i would guess you turned of the visibility of 3d models inside the 3d viewer. (I don’t have access to kicad right now so i can not check how the menu settings are called. My guess is that this would be under the view or preferences menu.)
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ok. the project was copied from my own old computer of 32 bit though it is kicad 5.0.1 but the support of opengl is low. that is why i got a new system with high support for opengl. i will start the project afresh and see if there will be changes and i will update the house.
thanks for now
Check your display options in the 3D viewer. 3D models can be turned off, you may need to turn them on. See:
Hi, similar problem with my KiCad 5.0.1 installation on win10.
I recently stepped over KiCad as a replacement for EAGLE (old version 5…)
And I’m really happy with KiCad!
Now to the problem:
The 3D model referenced here does not show because there exists no such file in the package!
I checked https://kicad.github.io/packages3d/Fuse - no such file there too …
Same with some other 3D models referenced to footprints: The files do not exist in the corresponding packages.
What happened to these files - and where can one get the missing files?
There is no 3D model because the librarians have not found a model for this component or the one they have found has not enough quality.
The path is there ready for the future, when someone make the model.
Thanks for the info.
I have same problem after upgrade from kicad v4 to kicat v4 on ubuntu 18.04. There was problem with local kicad configuration stored in /home//.config/kicad/ in my case.
3D components were named in plural in version 4, but from version 5 components names are in singular form (like Resistors vs. Resistor). Here is configuration greped by string “Resistors”:
@bobek:~/.config/kicad$ grep Resistors *
fp-lib-table: (lib (name Resistors_SMD)(type Github)(uri ${KIGITHUB}/Resistors_SMD.pretty)(options “”)(descr “Resistors, surface mount”))
fp-lib-table: (lib (name Resistors_THT)(type Github)(uri ${KIGITHUB}/Resistors_THT.pretty)(options “”)(descr “Resistors, through hole”))
fp-lib-table: (lib (name Resistors_Universal)(type Github)(uri ${KIGITHUB}/Resistors_Universal.pretty)(options “”)(descr Experimental))So, my solution was to remove/backup old configuration and new one was created at next kicad application start.
Next problem is with existing projects, because symbols are assigned to footprints with plural names (like “Resistors_SMD:R0805”), so I reasigned all symbols to non plural footprint in dialog “Assigning BCP footprints to schematic symbols” (like “Resistor_SMD:R0805_2012Metric”).
From that moment were components visible in 3D view.
I faced the same problem today, on Ubuntu-18.04 installed with kicad-5.0.2
I deleted the directory .config/kicad to remove settings from version4
but 3d view did not show foot prints
ran from a terminal and found that I need to remove
.cache/kicad also from the home directory
After that all is fine. Hope this may be useful to someone.
Regards
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Having a similar problem. New to Kicad so no idea where to start trying to resolve this.
Running Debian 9
Application: kicad
Version: 5.0.2+dfsg1-1~bpo9+1, release build
Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.0.4
libcurl/7.52.1 OpenSSL/1.0.2q zlib/1.2.8 libidn2/0.16 libpsl/0.17.0 (+libidn2/0.16) libssh2/1.7.0 nghttp2/1.18.1 librtmp/2.3
Platform: Linux 4.9.0-8-amd64 x86_64, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK
Build Info:
wxWidgets: 3.0.2 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8) GTK+ 2.24
Boost: 1.62.0
OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.8.0
Curl: 7.52.1
Compiler: GCC 6.3.0 with C++ ABI 1010
Build settings:
USE_WX_GRAPHICS_CONTEXT=OFF
USE_WX_OVERLAY=OFF
KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON
KICAD_USE_OCE=ON
KICAD_USE_OCC=OFF
KICAD_SPICE=ON
I’ve copied the latest Kicad footprints, 3d packages and symbols from https://github.com/KiCad
Under /usr/share/kicad/modules I can for example see Battery.3dshapes/Battery_CR1225 step and wrl files.
In footprint editor I place Battery_CR1225 and launch 3d viewer however I don’t see anything for this.
I’ve checked the display options and also tried deleting the .cache/kicad and .config/kicad folders.
Made no difference.
What am I missing? Can’t see any 3d images for any of the components.
Update: Funny how I always seem to fix it after I have posted 
I copied the 3d packages to the wrong folder 
Path for KISYS3DMOD is /usr/share/kicad/modules/packages3d/
Moved the 3d packages and all working as expected.
what do you see?
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You might want to take a look at this: Library management in KiCad version 5
TlDr: Don’t touch the system folders. You might loose your stuff next time you update kicad.
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I face the same problem today, so if you are having the same one, the 3d plugin is located in /usr/lib64/kicad
, so you only need to change the permissions in the folder, I use sudo chmod a+rx -R /usr/lib64/kicad
, and everything works fine.
please report what you needed to do and your operating system over on the bugtracker. I suspect that some assumptions made by the packaging guys do not hold for your system.
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