Hi,
As I found no satisfying answers consulting the search here, I would like to know, if there is a method (ideally identical to the Altium one) planned to orient and align step models to the footprints?
Because right now I have the problem, to correctly place a pin header:
I only worked with Altium before and feel like I was transferred to the stone age 
Regards,
Hannes
In the next half a year, do not expect global changes in this direction in the functions of kicad
I watched half the video and started thinking "thank you KiCad team . . . " I really prefer the KiCad way. But I guess it’s what you are used to . . .
Spend a little time trying it and you will get used to it and probably find you can do it in 1/4 of the time it takes you in Altium.
EDIT: One tip, disable orthograpic projection while you are trying to line things up.
Yes, of course if you are used to sth, then you can finish it pretty quickly.
I admit, the relevant video part is too long for my taste, but I just wanted to show the workflow.
Because for objective reasons, a function to “ground” a selected face to the virtual PCB surface is an unbeatable feature. In my 3D printer slicer there is also the function to select a face of the 3D file for orienting it to the printbed.
Also, if you have non rectangular/round component shape with a weird pad layout, you need to have a quick way to get a grab point on the 3D file that one can self define for pulling that point to a specific snap point on the footprint.
And Altium detects most vertices like corners or the midpoints of circular faces. Only for rectangular faces, you have to manually select diagonal opposing vertices to generate the faces midpoint.
But for pads and pins, that are not in the same grid as the 3D object, you will never align these 100% in KiCad.
If I needed to (an I suspect the instances where I needed to would be few) I could, how ? probably using FreeCAD but I’m not very familiar with FreeCAD.
So I would get the part aligned as best I can, then export the board and part assembly as a STEP file and pull it into Solidworks. There I can measure any misalignment then using that info correct for that in KiCad. OK it requires me to use an extra application and even though Solidworks is expensive it’s still less than Altium 
But for pads and pins, that are not in the same grid as the 3D object, you will never align these 100% in KiCad.
If i understand that correct: Hopefully not. That would be an error. The 3D view should absolutely show this errors and don’t let you align things with different grids.
For me, 3D model have a origin that is defined and the Footprint also has a defined origin. Now you can calculate the offset. Enter the offset from the calculation and check if the 3D model is placed correct. If not, you have a error in your footprint, 3D model or in your calculation. It is important to understand where the error comes from and correct it in the footprint or 3D model if it is there. Don’t just place objects so they look right without using the 3D viewer to verify that your models are correct.
I have done it few times, last more than year ago. I’m also not familiar with FreeCAD.
What I rememeber:
In FreeCAD if you have selected KiCadStepUp you have in top menu “ksu Tools” that opens a window with tools. I suppose you need to use:
If you want to be absolutely precision then probably the Caliper Tools from Manipulator workbench are for you. I remember that I had a problem to masure distance from center of THT pin to center of hole, but I had no problem to measure distance between both pin sides and both hole sides so I could calculate the exact distance I needed to move model to have pins exactly in hole centers.
I was doing it with FreeCAD and not KiCad because I understood from StepUp cheat sheet that it is better (I didn’t understood why) to have all (except one) KiCad 3D model positioning parameters left at default values.
if you want to align a 3d model to a footprint you can use kicadStepUp to import the kicad footprint in FreeCAD, then import the step model and align it precisely to the fp. After that simpky export the 3d model with the new placement and it will be perfectky aligned in your footprint also in kicad.
Here a 7 years old topic with a very old release of kSU
Now it can be done faster and easier using also Aligner in FreeCAD
Aligner has been developed also for that user case
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