Pcb antenna not being shown on stepfile export

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1

I am exporting my pcb time to time to send it to the mech guy and it bothers me why antenna footprint is not shown but tracks do. For the record I am using FreeCAD with KiCadStepUp for visualizing the export. Any idea ? I experience this issue regardless of exporting a step file from pcbnew or importing the .kicad_pcb file on KiCadStepUp.

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2

Can you share the antenna footprint?

What kicad version, 5.1.x?

3

Its included in kicad installation. Footprint library RF_Antenna, Texas_SWRA117D_2.4GHz_Right and _Left.
KiCad version: 5.1.9-73d0eb Running on Ubuntu 20.04

4

I have no experience with this particular footprint, but what I usually do is that I create a 3D model of the antenna and add it to the footprint. Personally I use Fusion360 and give the model a height of just 0.1 mm or so.

5

I was considering that solution also. I opened the footprint in the editor and it is defined as polygon on the F.Cu Layer. I ignore why a track on that same layer is shown but the polygon is not.

6

No experience with it but it doesn’t show up in the 3D viewer either. It is listed as a ‘virtual’ part. Not sure if that makes a difference. Have you checked to see if it is at least on the gerbers?

7

Yeah, gerbs are fine

8

hi, we are talking how StepUp is importing traces in FreeCAD, not how kicad is exporting a step model of a board.
Kicad doesn’t export traces at all as step model (and never did) afaik.
StepUp allows to load traces in FreeCAd as mechanical model and from there it is possible to export a step mechanical model.
The issue here is that StepUp is not able to load the footprint polygon as it is designed in the actual kicad library.
In previous releases the fp was designed in a simpler way and StepUp was able to load that polygon to FreeCAD.

Here a sample of a fp model that can be loaded in MCAD through StepUp
rfantenna-2.kicad_pcb (4.0 KB) rf-test-2.kicad_mod (1.2 KB)

Please note that StepUp is aimed mainly to get the MCAD model of pcb and 3d parts, not to get a precise model of the traces. For that purpose you may have a look at fcad_pcb at GH

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9

Thanks a lot for your footprint, May I ask how do you insert custom geometry for pad creation ?

10
  1. export your fp to dxf from kicad plotting
  2. import the dxf in FC and convert it to a sketch
  3. export it to kicad fp using StepUp
    (have a look at StepUp cheatsheet and Demo files for some tips)
    rfantenna-F_Cu.dxf (3.5 KB)
    rfantenna.FCStd (11.4 KB)
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