How to make 3D modeling work in Kicad 5.0.0?

[SembazuruCDE]

Yeah… I know… I’m not @pedro. Wanna fight about it? (Sorry, I’m in a silly mood…)

In any KiCad window, look for “Configure Paths…” in the preferences menu. Look to see what path is configured to KISYS3DMOD and check to see that the path exists on your system. If it exists, check to see that LED_THT.3dshapes/LED_D3.0mm_IRGrey.wrl exists within that path.

If it doesn’t, you may not have installed the 3D objects.

[Russ]

Thank you, Rene_Poschl.

The variable is set to /usr/share/kicad/modules/packages3d/

root@neptune1:/usr# cd share/kicad/modules/packages3d
bash: cd: share/kicad/modules/packages3d: No such file or directory
root@neptune1:/usr# pwd
/usr
root@neptune1:/usr# cd share
root@neptune1:/usr/share# cd modules
bash: cd: modules: No such file or directory
root@neptune1:/usr/share# ls -Fd * | grep /$
GConf/
GeoIP/
GraphicsMagick-1.4/
ImageMagick-6/
PackageKit/
QtCurve/
X11/
a2ps/
accounts/
.
.
.
zsh/
zuluCrypt/

No modules subdirectory.

[Rene_Poschl]

You will need to install the libraries package. I would guess it will be called kicad-packages3d or similar (search for kicad* using your package manager)

[Russ]

Okay, Rene_Poschl, thank you.

root@neptune1:/usr/share# apt-cache search kicad-packages3d
kicad-common - Old common files used by kicad - Transitional Package
kicad-libraries - Virtual package providing common used libraries by kicad
kicad-packages3d - 3D models for 3D viewer in KiCad’s Pcbnew and Footprint Editor
root@neptune1:/usr/share# apt-cache madison kicad-packages3d
kicad-packages3d | 5.0.0-2~bpo9+1 | https://deb.debian.org/debian stretch-backports/main amd64 Packages
kicad-packages3d | 5.0.0-2~bpo9+1 | https://deb.debian.org/debian stretch-backports/main i386 Packages

I will install that deb package and then return here to see if you want me to restart kicad.

[Russ]

Okay, I just added 314 MiB of files from that deb package, kicad-packages3d (5.0.0-2~bpo9+1).
I didn’t close kicad, just closed and then reopened pcbnew.
Here it is:
[https://ibb.co/ivk0y0](3D Board view of BuildElectronicCircuits’ Kicad demo. #1)

I found from https://kicad.org/help/file-formats/ that wrl files are 3D model files.

Thank you, Rene_Poschl and SembazuruCDE, for helping me get one step closer to being able to use kicad 5.0 for productive work.