Need to know how a single computer can be used to link 3d symbols to Personal Footprint Libraries, or other new footprints without 3d symbols,. In the Kicad 9?
I have personal folders for symbols, and footprints, but they can’t seem to find a 3d-symbol. So I just get the footprint when I look at the populated pcb in 3d.
How do I fix this. Also, I have several footprints that are in the kicad supplied library that are valid for my purposes, but don’t seem to have a 3d symbol attached. An example is an 0805 capacitor. Is there a way to attach/reattach a symbol for it?
And I suppose I can use FreeCAD to build a step file for the 3d symbol. Is this correct?
Since the standard footprint library are read-only, this means you have to do it on a personal library. Here’s a footprint of mine with a defined model:
Create3D personal libraries as you create footprint and schematic personal libraries.
Start by creating a Folder with your OS and naming that “Personal 3D model Libraries”
Next, create some more folders inside the first folder, again with your OS, and name them more specifically; eg. 3D Connector Library, 3D Relay Library, 3D Capacitor Library etc.
Next, when you have found, or created 3D models, place them in their appropriate Library folder.
Next, open your Footprint Properties, then open the 3D Models tab (see Retiredfeline’s example), then either type the full path to the appropriate 3D model, or click on the folder image at the RH end of the path line and navigate to the appropriate 3D model inside the layers of folders mentioned above in this post.
NOTE: If you wish to attach a 3D model to a Kicad footprint, you must first copy that footprint to a personal footprint library, because Kicad library symbol and footprint libraries are “read only”.
I just checked this, and the standard 0805 capacitor does have a default 3D model that works, and is visible on the PCB. I used KiCad V8.0.9. So maybe there is something missing or broken in your library setup.
I have also successfully created and exported several 3D models for KiCad in FreeCAD. Also, some of the drawings for them (also in FreeCAD) can be found in the git repository for KiCad on gitlab. This should help if you want to make variants of them.
Thank you for your response. I managed to “reset” the 0805 footprint somehow. I do too much framing on this that I forget the steps I took to get it back. A button to reset had something to do with it I am sure, I just don’t remember where it was. I have a folder called AllKicadLibraries, and I have copied all of the kicad libraries into it from Program Files/kicad/9.0/share/kicad/ and copied them to a workfolder/kicad/AllKicadLibraries/ . Now I can’t get the program to identify that I want to use this folder instead (it isn’t read-only, not going to be overwritten, I can add to it, and I just thought it to be a better idea. Any idea to make the program use the new folder and not the original?
Sure, you can make a writable copy of KiCad’s libraries, but why would you? You probably only need a tiny part of it for your own projects, and you can’t outpace the rest of the world contributing to those libraries. To me it makes more sense to only maintain your personal libraries for the parts you created yourself. You can even create merge requests for them to get them into the default libraries.
