Hello,
I’m new to KiCad an the forum and first of all I would like to say great work. Thank you.
To the question:
I am exporting my KiCad pcb to Freecad for mechanical integration. Is there a way to reload a kicad_pcb file? I would like stepup not to open a new document. Rather delete my old import and replace it with the new one in the current document.
I just cut and paste into target sheet then delete the import sheet. Works well.
It might not be such a good idea to insert directly into a target sheet.
There is potential for stuff ups due to partial imports.
ATM what @jos suggested is the way to go. (where the sheet is a FC document).
And if you have moved or aligned the previous version of the imported Board to a different Placement, you can just copy the Placement to the imported & pasted Part container of the board. Then everything will be re-aligned to your design.
The paste© trick can also be used for PCB sketch, so to keep FC sketch constraints when you update the pcb i.e. moving footprints on pcbnew.
Thank you for the fast reply.
The copy-process is a pain, because my connector STEP files are rather big. But this is an other problem…
I see what you would need … just an update of 3d model placement without reloading the STEP data…
What I normally do is to to arrange the 3D positions in FC, arranging accordingly to mechanical needs, and then push the update placement to the kicad_pcb file, using the StepUp push to pcb button.
But a pull option to import the new position as it is on the modified pcb file could be easily added…
@Tobias_Groeber please let me know if is this what you need.
Yes, I think this would solve my problems mostly. Thank you.
Does this include a change in PCB size/shape, too?
You mean you would like to change the board edge inside kicad and then pulling only the edge inside FC?
This is not suggested, because Edge editing is much easier inside FreeCAD, than inside KiCAD (at least IMO) …
… this could also be implemented …
Moreover push and pull partial information would need a very accurate workflow.
Anyway I’ll have a look at this …
Maurice
@Tobias_Groeber
I’ve just added the option to update 3d model placements without loading the STEP file with the latest release…
https://forum.kicad.info/t/kicad-stepup-wb-few-enhancements/
Great. Thank you.
I’m going to try it as soon as possible.
@maui Thanks for the nice improvement on the tool! Is there a way to update the PCB shape and/or sketch in FreeCAD from a .kicad_pcb file?
If I try to “Sync 3d model(s)…” with the Pcb shape selected, it asks me a for a REF. And using “Pull Sketch from PCB Edge” opens a new FreeCAD file, instead of updating the current shape and/or sketch as, for example, the “Pull 3D model(s) placement from PCB” tool (this last one asks me for a “Timestamp” if I try to use it on the PCB shape).
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