Hi @nicholas
would you mind to try with StepUp?
here a link of a video to load and align a 3D model to its footprint directly in FreeCAD
Align 3D model to footprint with kicad StepUp
and the correspondent thread in this forum
forum thread “interactive Align 3D part to footprint”
The STEP model you will export with ksu will be aligned to kicad footprint…
PS an other thing you may have to check is if the footprint .kicad_mod and the pcb .kicad_pcb have the same wrl or step model and parameters
Maurice
EDIT
here a model done with 3d model generator
sot891_1x1_p035.wrl (23.7 KB)
sot891_1x1_p035.step (74.5 KB)
and a version without visible pins
sot891_1x1_p035.wrl (13.4 KB)
sot891_1x1_p035.step (57.4 KB)