however when I try to add a bit of bling to the model (the mechanical guys need to know the copper position to design some brushes) and try to import the copper into the model, the result is not as expected:
@der.ule
Which is your StepUp release nbr? and FC full release details?
could you post the board? (or send it to me in PM?)
I’ve tested with the following board without issues… ruuvitag_revb6.kicad_pcb
Make sure your big hole does not exist multiple times and is a closed outline. (Your original board had a simpler hole shape that is less likely to be an invalid polygon. Also note that if the kicad internal exporter fails then there is a high likelihood that your outlines are not quite correct.)
If you run nightly then you can use DRC to check your board outline.
The big holes are couple of arc due to the discontinuities in the perimeter, but I try as best as I could to fit them together (changing the radius of an arc could be a useful feature). Apparently, there is a discontinuity as I am not able to export it anymore directly from KiCAD (the exporter reports an error). With StepUp apparently this is not a problem (Thanks Maui!)
Below I’m attaching the KiCAD project (nothing fancy really) with the 3D models, thanks a lot for your help!
You can use stepup to draw your outline and then push it to kicad. This helps a lot for such complex outlines where the kicad internal drawing tools are simply not powerful enough.
Thanks, but as far as i know it is not possible to remove the soldermask from traces only from pads, my plan was to request the board without solder mask. I just blended out in the 3d viewer.
My recommendation:
Select F.Mask layer
Select the circle tool
Draw a circle with the same radius as your copper rings.
Edit the circle and select the line width to the same as your copper rings (perhaps 1.1 instead of the 1.0)
repeat
Design the edge in FC and push it with StepUp
1alt) Fix your edge simply importing your board in FC with StepUp and push back the automatically fixed-closed edge to pcbnew using again Stepup.
For antenna tracks I would create a footprint in FC or in Kicad using a Geometry primitive to create the circles and TH pads.