3D rendering not working reliably

Layout 3D Models
1

Hi,

I’ve just upgraded from 4.07 to 5.0.2 on a Windows 10 x64 machine, and have run into a strange issue with 3D rendering using OpenGL. It all worked fine on 4.0.7,

If I start KiCad in Legacy mode and open up the 3D viewer, the PCB will render correctly. However, if I then close down the 3D viewer and open it back up again I just get a transparent pad / via view of the PCB. To get it working properly again I need to shut down KiCad completely and reopen it.

If I start KiCad in Modern Toolset mode I just get a transparent pad / via view of the PCB. I need to switch to Legacy mode, completely shut down KiCad again, and then reopen it to get the rendering to work.

I’ve tried completely uninstalling KiCad and then re-installing, but that didn’t make any difference.

Any thoughts on what might be causing this, and what I should do to fix it?

image
image849×923 190 KB

This is my setup:

Application: kicad
Version: (5.0.2)-1, release build
Libraries:
    wxWidgets 3.0.4
    libcurl/7.61.1 OpenSSL/1.1.1 (WinSSL) zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.6 libidn2/2.0.5 libpsl/0.20.2 (+libidn2/2.0.5) nghttp2/1.34.0
Platform: Windows 8 (build 9200), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW
Build Info:
    wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8)
    Boost: 1.68.0
    OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.9.1
    Curl: 7.61.1
    Compiler: GCC 8.2.0 with C++ ABI 1013

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

Graphics card is an AMD FirePro M6000 Mobility Pro, and I downloaded and installed the latest driver for this yesterday, but it didn’t make any difference.

2

If you do not get a good answer here for your problem then you might want to head over to the bug tracker.

Disclaimer: Below is an answer to a question you did not yet ask. I read your question wrong originally. But i leave my answer here as it could be useful to you anyways.

The libraries have been reorganized for version 5. This has two consequences:

  • old projects will not render correctly if you do not provide the old 3d model library.
  • your library setup might be wonky without user interaction. This is because your personal global footprint library table is not updated. (will still point to version 4 on demand online libs) Symbol and 3d model libs will however use version 5 libs (there was no symbol library table in v4)

More details see: I had KiCad 4 installed previosly. Now i updated to v5. Now i have some problems with the library setup

3

Thank you. I’ll give it a couple of days to see if anyone can offer a solution here, before reporting it as a bug.

4

Try re-drawing that outline. You might have drawn twice the same line and it confuses the renderer. Or maybe try to export the 3D STEP, line corners could a bit misaligned and I think the step export is more verbose when you have those misalignments.

5

I don’t think it’s related to the outline. Even with a brand new project, if I just view a footprint, I see the same problem. First time it renders ok, second time the render fails and I need to restart KiCad for renders to work again:

image
image339×871 78.1 KB

Edit: Sorry for the way I’m posting images. As a new user, the site won’t let me upload multiple images in one post, so I’ve pasted the two images into a word document, and then taken a capture of that image!

6

Hi @chaser2001, I’m Mario, one of 3D Viewer developers.
First time I heard about that bug!
It will be appreciate if you could past properly this information on the official kicad bug report page:

This sounds to me to be some peculiar issue with your system. It may be a conjunction from any KiCad issue with possible wxWidgets, Windows8 or your GPU/drivers.

7

I’ll do that tomorrow morning. Thanks for looking at this for me.

8

Thanks! Could you replicate it on any other system?
Would be possible also to test with a nightly build?
http://downloads.kicad.org/windows/nightly/

9

Just in the process of installing the latest nightly now and will feedback shortly.

I’ve not tried it on any other system yet, but will do tomorrow.

Edit: Just tried with kicad-r12312.7789ec4bf-x86_64.exe and getting the same results. Will try on a different system in the morning (UK time).

10

Installed the latest release version 5.0.2-1 on a different Windows 10 x64 PC, and it’s working fine on that setup. There is one fundamental difference between the two setups; which is that my failing setup has an AMD graphics card, and the other PC has a NVidia graphics card.

That’s a bug report also submitted:

1 Like
11

I’m having the same issue on my system. I’m running a Dell Optiplex using a AMD WX3100 graphic card. I’m using the latest AMD Radeon Pro drivers, 19.Q1.2. Just to help diagnose things, I removed my WX3100 and ran everything off the integrated Intel HD 530 graphics and everything works great!
So the problem appears to be something with AMD. Let me know if you need additional information from my system to help diagnose things.

2 Likes
12

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