PCB step export for 3D FDM printed stencils and jigs

[halachal]

you can also just order a proper steel stencil along with your boards for about $7 instead of all this faffing about.

[GPLextek]

Kind of what I did here to make rimmed stencil and a tight fitting PCB jig with 4 alignment nails - although most operations were done outside KiCAD using LibreCAD and FreeCAD

[paulvdh]

Suggestion:
Can you edit the title of this thread to remove the “Feature request:” part, as it turned out this request has nothing to do with KiCad itself, but should and is handled by external programs unrelated to KiCad itself.

It’s easier for others who search this forum in a later stadium.

[GPLextek]

Done.

Here 3D print of jig + rimmed stencil.

The world of 3D printing moves on

[der.ule]

Nice!

Out of curiosity a couple of questions if you don’t mind: how long does it take you to print the parts (stencil and jig)? Can you reuse the stencil or are they single use?

This looks like something I would like to try in the future, I hope I remember to look at this thread then

[GPLextek]

At 55mm/second the left print took about 2 hours on 0.4mm nozzle, while right took 5 hours on 0.2mm nozzle. The stencil is 0.2mm thick and easily reusable for hobby use.

The workflow using KiCAD, LibreCAD, FreeCAD took about 2 hours. It would be good to have a KiCAD script to do most of that work in seconds.

From KiCAD’s internal data, KiCAD needs to emit 4 STEP files:

1. A rectangular base step file of about 1mm thick that is bigger than PCB + rim for stencil.
2. A second step file that contains the same rectangular base with the PCB cut out + dilation and PCB thickness.
3. A third step file which is stencil with border same as base and adjustable thickness to around 0.2mm
4. A 4th step file which is base size with adjustable rim and adjustable thickness of about 2mm.

Once generated, the 4 step files can easily be imported into FreeCAD and turned into above STL files ready for printing with parametric settings to locate the pins within 10 minutes of work.

The shape of the rim is rectangular - but it can be altered in FreeCAD to be other shapes specifically suited to the layout of PCB components - e.g. a doughnut shape for a ring type PCB. Custom scraper can also be made within FreeCAD and parametric to suit the shape of the rim.