Kicad seem to "forget" 3D models

Layout 3D Models
1

Hello everybody,

I’m using Kicad professionaly for more than one year now. I’m very pleased with it.
But sometimes, I have to work in paralell with a mechanical engineer so I have to export a 3D step with the most space consuming parts.
Regularly, when I open a board and check the 3D vizualisation, some user-added parts are missing. When I check in the footprint parameters, it’s like I just added a footprint alone and no 3D part is referenced.

A thing which can provide explanations is that I work on this project on an USB key and sometimes open the project on a different PC. But I checked that everything is linked with relative paths.

Thank you for reading.

2

3d models are not really managed. The footprint points to the files directly.
But you can use environment variables.

I am not sure what you mean with using relative paths. If i remember correctly entering relative paths into footprint settings will mean it is relative to the KISYS3DMOD path variable.

A detailed explanation is found in Tutorial: How to make a footprint in KiCad 5.1.x (From scratch)?
And this can also help: Library management in KiCad version 5

3

By relative path, I mean ${KIPRJMOD} where I have a specific directory for 3D parts and project specific footprints.

4

That should work no matter where your project lives. The only problem i can see is if you have access right problems.

And another thing that can happen is that you do not use personal footprints and (or) your different setups point to different footprints.

5

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