Hi all,
It seems like this question was asked by other people before but no clear answer came out. Basically I have multiple components from SnapEDA and others, when I specify the 3D model it renders it perfectly. If I restart KiCAD most (not all) of the model goes away and I have to press “E” and then specify path to the 3D model again.
Is there a solution to this problem?
I do not know how a restart of KiCad would break the link, but there is a clear difference of how you import the footprint into KiCad. If you want the links to keep valid, you have to put the link to the 3D model into the library part. If you only only edit the link to a footprint that is already on the PCB, then you will loose the link the next time the footprint is updated from the library.
And of course, when you move the 3D model to some other directory, the link in KiCad’s footprint also gets broken and has to be updated. For this I use a custom environment variable for the directory where I store my personal 3D models.
I have a folder called “OTS” with all the imported files and CADs. I assign the 3D part every time I add the new footprint. Was I suppose to do this somewhere else?
First do this: Place the path where you have all your 3D models
Then, place the symbolic link along with the name of the 3D model
By doing this you should not fail again.
2 Likes
Didn’t work unfortunately 
Click here and change it in your library footprint, not the PCB footprint:
Then do “Update Footprint from Library”
Do you save the PCB when restarting KiCad?
