First: I dislike your way of talking in a public forum
Second: regarding the criticism you made on my tools, I thought it was you that were disappointed not to be able to use a set of tools that thousand of people are using easily
and referring to ignorance, I will let you enjoy yours
I’m talking for my 3D MCAD models…
I used manufacturer’s data sheet as reference … for example
in the README you can find the reference documents
http://www.kemet.com/ProductCatalog%20Documents/KEM_TC101_STD.pdf
http://www.mouser.it/pdfdocs/KEMETT491Datasheet.pdf
For all my libraries you will find the manufacturer reference document, with dimensions and tolerances
It may depend a lot on which deep is your simulation…
probably you will need a more specific model to adhere exactly the manufacturer you have chosen with thermal coefficients and more data…
I think manufacturers data sheets are reasonable basis for series parts (parametric) provided that they have data for the whole of the series. Otherwise if there is a source of for series parts that can be built from a dimension table of the variants then it becomes much quicker to check and in theory to get them incorporated into any library, because there is a single reference to check against.
Yes that’s my point, that the models included should only be used for geometric and visual purposes, so slight variation between manufacturers (for a common package) is irrelevant in this context.
Hi @bobc, I read the article you pointed.
From what I understand from the article, the main point is that what you physically create by using the information from a 3D model file, the physical creation is not subject to be copyrighted (it can be however patented… by some other meanings…etc)
However,
I extracted two main parts I found here interesting for discussion:
Unlike a functional object, a file is just code. And code is generally protectable by copyright. That means the even if the object is not protectable by copyright, the file may well be.
it may very well be that while code is generally protectable by copyright, the code that simply represents an object is not protectable by copyright.
From MY interpretation of the second quote, I don’t think it will be applied on this cases (but I may understand on each cases it can be applied… just can’t get with an example… )
But so, it still looks OK (to me) to license somehow the files (generally the copy / share of the files)
Do you have any suggestion / examples for this kind of license?
Related with this discussion, the diptrace software provides tons of STEP files:
http://diptrace.com/libraries-and-3d-models/3d-models/
it would be nice to know/understand what kind of license they are sharing the files. (they provide auto-extract.exe files so I couldn’t extract it on linux)
Any data, file, contents, information and software provided by this website only for the purpose of using DipTrace. No other purpose permitted.
http://diptrace.com/policy/
there is the Mac version of 3D libraries which is zipped
if you are looking for more models, there are quite a lot of parametric models @ FreeCAD library repo
particularly for electronics
https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD-library/tree/master/Electrical%20Parts/electronic-components
The models are licensed as stated in the README
License
All Parts in this repository are licensed under CC-BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Each Part is copyrighted by and should be attributed to its respective author(s).
See commit details to find the authors of each Part.
If you are uploading parts to this repository, please make sure you are the author of the model,
or otherwise that you have right to share it here under the CC-BY 3.0 license, and make sure the author
is mentioned in the commit message.
As I already mentioned I don’t think this kind of license is fine for kicad library, but I think something like gEDA exception could be managed contacting directly FC people… many of them are also present on this forum 
Anyway this is only my opinion, others may disagree, but consider that my opinion is aligned to what Wayne said few time ago
http://www.mail-archive.com/kicad-developers@lists.launchpad.net/msg16679.html
and it is also aligned to FSF lawyers thinking…
so in case I’m wrong, at least I’m in good company
Kemet have a huge selection of detailed models - their entire range it would seem at https://search.kemet.com/component-edge/#/?id=410. No registration required and I can find no specific licensing restrictions on their use.
They all need scaling and aligning though.
they should be under this license…
http://www.kemet.com/legalnotice
LEGAL INFORMATION
The information in this website belongs exclusively to KEMET Electronics Corporation (“KEMET”). Copyright in the material contained in this website belongs to KEMET. The contents of this website provided free of charge are provided under a nonexclusive, non-transferable license for printing and use only by the individual who signed onto this service, and only for that individual’s personal, non-commercial use. Any other uses of any of the information from this site require additional permission from KEMET.
anyway plenty of really nice models there 
Sorry, but where do you download the models? I couldn’t find any download link. I just see some nice pictures…
You click on them till you get to the series of whatever you selected…
Example:
So, nice for someone who does go through the motions and does need the model for whatever reason, unusable for an entity like KiCAD.
Go to https://search.kemet.com/component-edge/#/?id=410
Either type a model number in the box e.g. T490A157M004AHE800 and choose 'Expand Details" or click through the ranges e.g. Tantalum > SMD Chip > Consumer. until you find the desired product and the .step link should be obvious. (More obvious than the Kemet licence at any rate! :))
Now I checked, I don’t think there are models for every Kemet device but it is a pretty comprehensive archive.
I would be interested in what Kemet (or other vendors) would actually say if asked (officially) about ‘additional permission’. Its a bit of a minefield though - perhaps I should retrain for a lucrative career as a IP lawyer
They need scaling and rotating and a lot of checking and fiddling with - especially to ensure they are dimensionally accurate which is the main reason for using them. They look nice though.
If we play a bit more with the materials and add specularity values to them we surely can do the same.
Actually, I think @kammutierspule 's material efforts where already pretty good in the regard.
This is a povray render from the STEP model right out of Inventor, nothing fancy really…
@maui by now should manage to do the same for the parametric models he can churn out of FreeCAD 
That looks very good indeed. I will have further play with the latest models.
@John_Pateman @Joan_Sparky ok I found I was unlucky and only some parts has STEP files to download… It does not look so “comprehensive” to me, but still OK to have a look!
I would rather have a more complete range of plain solid, but accurate STEP models than a small number of beautifully photo-realistic, but large file size eye candy specials.
The next thing will be a script calculating the correct colour bands for a 1/4W axial resistor, taking 30 minutes to render 
Not necessarily, the 3D representation would be a set of cylinders, whose colours were a table lookup function of the value parameter.
Rendering time and texture memory usage could be a big problem
I already have those scripts for VRML. 
I wouldn’t attempt them with STEP since only RGB colors are supported + I only want solid models for verification purposes. In fact many available STEP models, particularly for headers and other connectors, are far too complex and only slow down the verification processes.
We haven’t had new requests for models last couple months. Dunno were we’re at.
Myself I’m currently programming + other stuff and not in electronic engineering mode were I need new housings, so I don’t do any right now.
And the housings I do have either the JEDEC/EIA/etc. housing ID on them or in the case of that cap up there the physical dimensions, so I can check visually in 3D view that I grabbed the right part. 
I have accuracy and small file size as target for my 3D models, with a little compromise with aesthetic details and VRML materials… typically I don’t put any text over the models because the file size is increasing quite a lot…
most of my models are script and parametric generated, with script based on a model family…
but they render very nice thanks to @kammutierspule materials guidelines and raytracing code
