need the 3D view to export a 3D file exactly as displayed, or to export a skillscreen file that is the same size as the PCB design.
This allows the design to be used in other programs or incorporated into a model on a footprint.
way2pramil/KiRender: SpinRender, Static Images, and SVG check this it’s beta version use carefully
can use file in 3d model on footprint ?
Yes if it render in Kicad Render, It export the same in export , use lower setting while testing, if render quality is High it take 100+ sec , on spin-render video creation it can take 30min to create 120 frame
If you really do want to do a feature request you need to do it on the basis that you are using the latest version, you won’t get new features or even bug fixes for V8.x.y
And if you want to really do want to make a feature request you have to do it as a bug report from here:
Does this topic differ from you other topic?
You can install KiCad v9 separately on Windows, copy your project and use it to export STEP models with silkscreen (note that any details increase file sizes and load times)
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I do the following to get an image of the top (or bottom) of the PCB showing the silkscreen information onto the exported PCB STEP file:
- In the KiCad PCB Editor press ALT-3 to get the 3D image of the PCB.
- In the Appearance panel on the right, turn off (hide) all models.
- Zoom the image to fill as much of the screen as possible.
- Press ALT-[PRINT SCREEN] to take a screen shot.
- Paste that screen shot into the graphics editor of your choice (irfanview works well on Windows).
- Crop the image to the outline of the PCB and save it in the format that suits you.
- In whatever 3D CAD package you use, paste the image onto the top of the imported STEP file of the PCB and size it appropriately.
The resultant image looks like this is SolidWorks:
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And how exact is that? Same shaders across all possible software, is not possible. Simply because all render engines work differently. It would really help if you would specify in what usecase you need the excat same. Exact is a bit different if you aim for Blender, Maya. Than if you aim for Creo, Catia, Solidworks, Rhino.
But like i said you can get silkscreen in 9 on the export. Then if we take a nonsensical board:
Image 1: a nonsensical board (9to3d.kicad_pcb (41.6 KB))
Okay so if we exprt this with following options as GLTF:
We get something very close.
So the red silkscreen is orange, sicce the overlay isn’t rendered the same.This is a bit disappointing since technically GLTF supports everything in the 3d viewer so its should accomplish this but alas different engines support different shading. Now we can change the color of the copper and have somewhat close to what the 3d viewer has but that’s a trick.
Same file in blender:
Ok so since renderers are different it will look a bit different, unsurprisingly.
Okay so what about exporting to STEP. And then using it in footprint:
Pretty close same orange cast but very close. This could be fixed again by adjusting the copper color And again looks a bit different in different cads due to how their shading is designed.
So a bit of massaging to how the export does the mask layer is needed for more exact copy but you get it very close to what is there already. Files will be big though.
Yes you can screen capture textures if you wish.
PS: no you can not get this in v8. Will not happen. Probably cant get it fixed the way you like in v9 either as devs are making v10 main dev platform
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Perhaps the feature request we need is to take the textures for top and bottom automatically in export.
Anyway again what is exact and what is good enogh though
STEP doesn’t support textures, and GLTF is not for MCAD.
Note you can already render top/bottom views as well as 3D model using jobsets.
have video tutorial ?
Hmm… Might be that step 203 does not support textures. But are you sure AP 214, AP 242 do not, they are are pretty big after all.
According to https://www.ap242.org/ed2-3d-cad-interoperability.html Step AP-242 supports textures. At least on polygons.
Anyway im going into the standardization offices library next week i can have a look see in the standard if it supports textures or not, Its just very, very big document to trawl through.
There’s
that can reference an external file.
But looks like it needs tesselated faces, and moreover for SolidWorks to support it.