Simple tutorial how to create blender 3D model from KiCad

External Plugins
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This is supposed to be a quick and simple tutorial on how to transfer your PCB from KiCad to Blender. It uses GitHub - 30350n/pcb2blender: KiCad to Blender 3D model workflow, so all kudos goes to its author, Blender authors and KiCad authors - I am just merely making a few steps tutorial.
I am also no Blender expert and there is a lot of much better Blender tutorials.
An example of what we will be creating:

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The mentioned plugin consists of two tools - KiCad exporter and blender importer.

  1. Install PCB exporter in KiCad. The page states that it is not available in PCM yet, so you need to install it manually. It basically means downloading the exporter from the releases page - Releases · 30350n/pcb2blender · GitHub . In time of writing this it was pcb2blender_exporter_2-7.zip .

  2. When it is downloaded, extract the plugins folder from it into your KiCad plugins folder and rename it to pcb2blender_exporter. So in my case it was exctract the contents of the plugins folder in the zip into C:\Program Files\KiCad\7.0\share\kicad\scripting\plugins\pcb2blender_exporter .

  3. In KiCad there should be a new icon:
    obrazek

  4. Click the icon and export the PCB:
    obrazek
    Even though it says 0 PCBs detected, it will export all into one file.

  5. Select the filename to export to and click export.

  6. Download the blender importer and do NOT extract it.

  7. In Blender, install the importer using Edit → Preferences → Add-ons → Install (point it to the zip archive).

  8. Enable the importer plugin in the Add-ons window by clicking its checkbox:

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  9. Create new Blender file, delete the cube and import the file created in step 5 via File → Import → PCB

  10. You should see the PCB in the right pane:
    obrazek
    The imported PCB may be small compared to the default camera.

  11. You have a working PCB model in Blender and you can follow any Blender tutorial on how to work with it. All I needed was to learn how to move and rotate objects (mainly camera and lights) and how to keyframe it to make an animation.

Sidenote: I am using KiBot ( GitHub - INTI-CMNB/KiBot: KiCad automation utility ) to automate my KiCad exports and it contains the KiCad exporter and can generate Blender files.

9 Likes
2

Thank you for the walkthrough. I was able to go through the steps. There seems to be no further configuration possible, so nothing to mess up in settings.

I would like to understand, do you get 3d models exported as well? When I go through the export and import, I only see the board outline in Blender. There is no components.

3

For me it exports everything even components. Maybe try different 3D formats (I am using STEP)

4

I tried several variables and I came to the conclusion that this works fine as long as default libraries and locations for 3d models are being used. I usually work with a set of my own libraries and almost 100% of the components are modified to project specific needs and point to a proprietary library. That does not seem to work with the plug-in.

5

I have not used it myself, but apparently it’s in the Plugin & Content manager in KiCad V8:

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