I like the newly updated STEP export capability in v8.0.4 wherein you can now also export the copper layers; previously it was just bare PCB and components. It would be nice to also have it export the SolderMask and SilkScreen layers, so that the STEP file contains ALL the info that my CAD system needs to fully render the PCBA.
Please and thank you!
You may want to look into the nightly development version (v8.99) which will eventually become v9 (next year).
Note: adding these layers to the step file will increase the file size.
As these items are normally not needed (“normal usecase” == MCAD<–>ECAD collaboration) it’s good that there are checkboxes to not export these layers.
That is definitely going to be a nice upgrade! I’m a bit leery of installing “nightly development versions” . . . always wonder what’s broken that I rely on. How soon before this is in a “stable” release? You say v9 . . . would love to see this in 8.0.5.
Will v9 require me to reconfigure a bunch of things (like I had to do when upgrading from v7 to v8)?? It would be nice if the new version would port-over the user settings from the older version.
This feature was announced today in the “Post-V8” thread. (KiCad has a Post-Vx thread for each KiCad version for some years now).
That is unlikely to happen. Increments in the third number are bug fix updates and do not introduce new features. KiCad is on a yearly mayor release schedule, and apparently they want to have the new version out just before FOSDEM, so that would be in February. With all the new features, also new bugs tend to be introduced, and plugins often need changes to work with the new KiCad version. For these reasons, many people wait a few months before updating to the next stable version.
You can install the nightly version separately on most systems, copy the project to a separate directory, then use it to export the STEP model.
Do not use nightly versions to work on projects, as they are unstable.
Also note that if you save the project in 8.99, you won’t be able to open it in 8.0
