hi,
Just starting out with kicad. It’s a little clunky but I quite like it.
I’ve drawn some new footprints, all worked fine.
I then drafted some 3d models for these new footprints in Turbocad and saved them as .wrl files.
When they are associated with respective footprints they are not visible in the 3d view.
Has anyone come across this?
Thanks for your time.
Mike
Kicad Version 4.0.5, Windows 7 64 bit.
They need to be wrl 2.0 I would suggest to use freecad and stepup to export them
Hi Mike,
if Turbocad can export to STEP, you can easily import your model in FreeCAD and align it to kicad footprint through the StepUp macro. Then you can export both VRML and STEP aligned to footprint with the same macro
Maurice
Thanks for the replies.
Ok,I ensured the .wrl now saves as 2.0. No change.
It seems the StepUP exports from KiCAD. Is this correct?
I found this. It seems to suggest success if I first export an .stl then open this and export as .wrl. Well, this didn’t work either.
If it’s a clue, if I don’t group the objects together before exporting as .wrl, KiCAD crashes when I attempt a 3D view. There’s no problem actually assigning the 3D shapes in either case.
I don’t get why the Turbocad wrl file would be different. mind, the pdf export leaves a lot to be desired.
I’ll try FreeCAD.
Thanks again chaps.
Mike
StepUp can do both:
from kicad to STEP
from STEP to wrl (importing also footprint in FC for better alignment)
this is a very OLD method, now overtaken
Ah!
I found the component - it’s very very tiny. And it’s black and solid. No holes, no colours.
Well at least it’s there.
@maui Thanks. I see I have some homework.
mike
I exported as VRLM and same thing happened to me. Then I’ve realized that it exports whole work area of PCB editor.
I got the results I want by entering the exact size of the model (X, Y fields that are offered in export dialog).
Easiest way to discover the size is to double click one boundary line to get its X and Y (if vertical line - start point X and start point Y; if horizontal line - end point X and end point Y)
Example with vertical boundary line:
P.S. Sorry for double post - only one image allowed in one post (newly registered).
From my own experience, I have been using Sketchup for years (Trimble Sketchup not Kicad Stepup ! ) before biting the bullet with FreeCad and none of my multiple attempts, had correctly been rendered. I also tried to convert .dae or .stl to .wrl models with Wings3D, old and new versions, Blender or Meshlab with no more success.
I now used Freecad and the StepUp workbench for a year, either for creating new models, exported to Pcbnew in .stp and .wrl formats or as a way to process complete boards imported from Pcbnew, modified then re-exported in .wrl and .stp formats to it in order to use them as compound models.
I had NO issue with this process. Everything is appearing in the 3D model viewer as well as in the Pcbnew 3D view. The sole important thing to remember is that it’s mandatory to have both .wrl and .stp files in the libraries otherwise if an .stl isn’t present, its 3D model won’t be exported to Freecad even if the .wrl file is existing in the path. Hope this will help !
This thread is four years old. Back then .wrl was the default 3D model format. KiCad has migrated to STEP with V5.x and staying with it for 5.99
Hi All,
For years I used to use Sketchup>Export STL … to generate xxx. stl. Then from WINGS the stl is imported. Doing some editing such material / color then it exported to xxx.WRL.
That scenario works well for years, until I use new laptop I met a similar problem above, the 3d midel of wrl wont show when i try to attache it to the footprint. Never met this case before for years.
Well… intuitivelly I open the xxx.wrl with TEXT EDITOR (my fav notepad++), doing some investigation, and I found the problem. In the header of WRL, you will find, in the structure Material {}, the parameter transparency. When it set to 1.0, this model will be ‘stealth object’ in footprint editor. If you set it to lower value, or extremly set to 0.0000, then that model will kindly appear.
While I m not expert in Wings 3D, but just simple task such coloring, I dont know how to set defaul parameter in Wings, such that the exported wrl already with transparency value of 0.000.
Wings experts, please advise.
cheers, josef
Hi,
Thanks a lot for this clue. I’m not that much concerned at the moment since I’ve created all my new models from Freecad plus KSU workbench but I still have some open projects using the models created before 2019 that aren’t working and I’d be glad to fix them ! I’ll try to switch the transparency to 0.
regards
