Set 3D shape to STEP or WRL file

I have remowed completelly 4.0.7 and installed 5.0.1.
Footprints in my lib lost their 3D shapes.
When adding 3D shape in 3D Settings I found there are for example in Resistor_SMD.3dshapes two files: R_0603_1608Metric.step and R_0603_1608Metric.wrl.
My question - which one I should use?
In 3D Settings you can have more than one 3D shape. What for? And if you have there a few shapes then who selects which one to use for example to print.
So may be I should add both .step and .wrl?
Trying to look for STEP and WRL I see people saying about conversion one to another, about creating models and exporting in one or another format, but not about which one is “better” :slight_smile:
Currently I don’t use 3D at all.
So my question is of nature: Which one to select to have less chance I will have to change it in future?

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Nominally, select the .wrl file for your footprint. If you do use the 3D renderer in KiCad you will get a better looking image because the .wrl files have colors. If you export the board to .step KiCad is smart enough to grab the 3D .step file with the same filename as the .wrl for the export. (Both KiCad native .step export and the FreeCAD StepUp workbench that was developed specifically for KiCad <-> FreeCAD integration). The .step files are useful for MCAD because they are solid objects (.wrl is mesh) so circles are geometric circles, squares are geometric squares, etc. This is important for object snap in MCAD.

But, if you don’t use 3D at all and never expect to, there really is no need for you to do anything. KiCad silently ignores missing 3D object files.

I’ve used this to combine multiple 3D objects for rendering. For example, on one project I was using an Arduino Pro Mini. The .step object that I found is just the board. So I added and moved around pin headers to show how the Arduino would look with the headers both attached to the board and with the programming header attached above the Arduino. This was a small personal project where I was hand fudging the BOM anyway for the pin headers (because I was snapping my desired lengths off of what ever I had lying around which were a random mix of 36pin and 40pin strips) I didn’t need to exactly count the pin headers in my schematic for the BOM.

You might still have the old footprint lib but already the new 3d lib. Read this carefully: I had KiCad 4 installed previosly. Now i updated to v5. Now i have some problems with the library setup

And everything clear!

I don’t use any 3D tool (except my imagination) because I just never thought I need one and I never looked for it. But when I first time installed KiCad the installer, at the end, told me to look at FreeCAD www. Now I assume - when I will have KiCad in my smaller finger I will look at FreeCAD.

A… .So if you put more 3D shapes KiCad makes sum of them.
I tried to put there .step and .wrl and didn’t noticed eny affect. But as both are the same so the mechanical sum is the same.

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I read it some time ago but don’t know what you have in mind.
Option 2. says: but locks you in the old lib that is no longer maintained - so I don’t wont it and don’t try to understand the following description.
Option 3 says: run both library setups in parallel - I don’t wont.

May be I would read it more carefully if I had more work to move from 4 to 5. But I have only one small PCB and only my libs needed for this PCB - just about 10 footprints. So I decided to update them manually.
I found that in V5 libs you have the same pad dimensions for Resistors, Capacitors, Inductors, Diodes with the same size 0402, 0603,…
In V4 you had very different pad sizes for R0603 and C0603. Before seeing that I never thought of haveing another 0603 for R and another for C. I liked that idea (under R0603 there were 1mm gap - so two 0,2mm traces with 0,2mm clearence could go), but my contract manufacturer didn’t agreed for 1mm gap (he said 0,85 is max) :frowning:

Now I like using rounded rectangles as pads for footprints like 0402, 0603,… I don’t know if under V4 it was possible. Many times these corners disturb me. So I am modyfying my footprints to have rounded pads (dimensions a little differnet then yous) and be linked to your V5 3D models. May be in some time in future I’ll be able to do some 3D models myself. In this my one 4.0.7 PCB I have used ferrite torroid standing vertically in rectangle whole in PCB. Now I even don’t dreem of haveing it in 3D :slight_smile:

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