I built the schematic and PCB and had them manufactured. So working with these tools is fine.
I was first using winbuilder to get the bleeding edge version, but with the nice new web, I found out about the daily built installation, which I did install this week.
In either case I am unable to visualize my work in 3D. I changed the path associated the 3D variable KISYS3DMOD to point to either GITHUB location or to the local disk “C:\Program Files\KiCad\share\kicad\modules\packages3d”, without success.
KISYS3DMOD must be a local directory; it is only the footprints which can be retrieved directly from github. The footprints in your project may have the wrong associated model path or else have no models associated. You need to right-click on a footprint then select “Edit Parameters”, click on the “3D setting” tab and associate the models.
Here are the current informations relating to paths:
KISYS3DMOD: C:\Program Files\KiCad\share\kicad\modules\packages3d
Footprint properties for 0805 smt capacitor component 3D Shape Name: Capacitors_SMD.3dshapes/C_0805_HandSoldering.wrl
3d shape file location on my PC: C:\Program Files\KiCad\share\kicad\modules\packages3d\Capacitors_SMD.3dshapes
With those informations, 3D view should have all the necessary details to display the 3D shape correctly, but it does not.
I tried with another simple project made of two passives components, where Kicad created the project directory, but the result is the same in 3D view; the components are not displayed.
I noticed that the backslash are different in the 3D Shape Name vs Default Path stored in the variable KISYS3DMOD. Could that be the reason? I tried to edit it, but the program brings it back to forward slash.
3D Shape Name: Capacitors_SMD.3dshapes/C_0805_HandSoldering.wrl
KISYS3DMOD: C:\Program Files\KiCad\share\kicad\modules\packages3d
For checking if the component shows up you can use ‘Alt’+‘3’ in the footprint editor… will bring a 3D view of the footprint right up and if all works out the 3D model on top of it.
You can try to link ‘hard’ to the 3D model also.
Go into the 3D settings tab for the footprint, click on ‘Remove 3D Shape’ (note down the location of the target first though ;-))
Then click on ‘Add 3D Shape’ and browse to where the 3D model is located at.
Oh, and just for sanity’s sake, you did activate to show 3D Shapes right?