I’ve been experimenting with StepUp for a very short while and I’ve managed to export a STEP of one of my boards. However the final model doesn’t include the silkscreen on the PCB. Is there a way to get this on the STEP model as well?
please have a look at here:
Whoo! That’s a long thread 
I’ll continue to read more on that but for now looks like this feature is a no-go. Great work on the tool though. It’s fabulous and helped me immensely.
Thx 
The short answer is:
Use STEP for mechanical integration
Use WRL for rendering or documentation
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Got it! Here is something that I attempted in Fusion 360 but it does require you to put text on the model and then extrude it by a very small amount (something like 0.1mm or so). The result is fairly good, but like I said it does require you to recreate the text. For a large board this can get tiresome and not everybody has or knows how to use Fusion. Thought I’d just put it here.
The other idea I tried was to export an SVG of the Fsilk layer from Kicad and then import that into Fusion and see if I can extrude that. However, that did not work either but then maybe I am doing something wrong here.
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Very nice looking model
In general if your step file will contain text, it will be much bigger in file size.
Nice render.
Did you try to use the embedded Raytracing render on latest (v5, nightly builds) KiCad’s 3D Viewer?
Wasn’t the result appealing enough or did you miss something?
If you didn’t try it yet I would be interested to know your feedback if your are looking for render your PCBs.
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That was rendered in Fusion 360 I usually do not tinker with the nightly builds but in general Kicad does not have that appealing renders. The # of options such as lighting source placement, render quality levels etc. are missing and this affects the final render.
It is indeed. I was simply looking for a way to get text on to the STEP model of the PCB.
Well step is not the best option to get good looking renders either. You might want to look into material properties for wrl. And use programs like blender. (Or other artistic render programs with powerful shader, material and lighting options.)
Good to know. I’ve been meaning to tinker with Blender for the longest time but just haven’t gotten around to it yet.
Would you mind to try it with nightly builds and new 3D Viewer (Raytracing mode)?
It is true that there are still no light placement, but you may be surprised by the render quality 
Blender
And ‘The internal 3d viewer’ of the dev release
Can you find a better ECAD internal viewer for rendering?
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Share with us your results for comparison with your previous render!
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