Is there a way to get Kicad 3D Viewer to user the same colors as PCBNew layers? At present they are different my bottom copper color in 3D Viewer is very dark, almost black yet the bottom copper for PCBNew is green. It appears that the other copper layer do match in color. This makes it challenging to go back and forth between the two to check for errors. I realize there is a selection for choosing Silk, mask and paste colors, as well as Copper surface finish. However, the copper surface finish effects all copper. I would like the copper colors to match the copper colors of PCBNew.
What shade of green/red do you have for the copper layers?
I’m at the 2nd darkest for each and can see the colors pretty well still…
To adjust use the middle mouse button on the color patch for the layer…
You might also want to try to see if you can adjust some settings for your graphics card for 3d modes…
This is what I get when I load your screenshot in a paint program and adjust the gamma value and brightness curve:
The bottom copper traces are actually green, just very hard to see with your current settings.
SOLVED: I am using the default layer colors for all layers. I discovered a 3D viewer setting that fixed the issue. Once I turned on “Show Copper Thickness” the green appeared correctly rendered. With this selection off, the inside of the bottom layer show as black… or very, very, very dark green?. If you flip the board over it is indeed green when viewing from the back side. However, the top copper is now shown as black. With the Show Copper Thickness selected, the layers are rendered in their correct color regardless of viewing angle.
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The problem seems to be that the render engine uses surface normals. So if it sees the backside of a face it thinks it does not reflect color. If you turn on show layer thickness, each layer has a front and back facing surface.
(This is used to ensure that a render engine never renders the “back side” of an object. I think this reduces render errors and increases performance.)