For those people who can build from source, and especially those with some programming experience, the KiCad development branch has recently introduced a plugin system to support 3D models. The current plugins support VRML1/2, X3D, and IDF formats and the 3D model browser now has a preview panel for these models.
There is also an out-of-tree plugin project to support STEP and IGES models via Open Cascade Community Edition (OCE):
I need some help from developers to ensure that the OCE plugin builds on MSWin and OSX. Methods need to be established for installing OCE and building the plugin on these systems; depending on whether or not suitable OCE installers are already available for those systems, we may need to build OCE for distribution as well.
At the moment the 3DViewer itself cannot display all of the models available via the plugin system since it needs to be rewritten to use the data structures which are used by the plugins. Mario Luzeiro is working on the new 3DViewer and we need some feedback on his branch:
Within Mario’s branch you will actually see the STEP/IGES/IDF/VRML{1,2}/X3D models within the 3DViewer. Since this is a complete rewrite of the viewer, it does not quite have all the features of the current viewer and of course needs people to test and help find bugs. This is a very large change in the code base so extensive testing will be necessary before a proposal can be made to merge the changes with the main KiCad branch. Volunteers are working on an automated build of this branch for a number of systems (OSX, MSWin, maybe a few variants of Linux) so hopefully in the near future we can make an announcement of prebuilt installer packages.
On Linux is very easy to build,
if you want to build it in a temporary path, here are my guidelines:
bzr branch lp:~mrluzeiro/kicad/kicad_new3d-viewer
mkdir -p kicad_new3d-viewer/build/release
cd kicad_new3d-viewer/build/release
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
-DKICAD_SCRIPTING=OFF
-DKICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=OFF
-DKICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=OFF
-DMAINTAIN_PNGS=ON
…/…/
make DESTDIR=/tmp/kicad install -j4
(change 4 for the nr of CPUs you have)
Then you can run individually:
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/tmp/kicad/usr/local/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH /tmp/kicad/usr/local/bin/pcbnew
or
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/tmp/kicad/usr/local/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH /tmp/kicad/usr/local/bin/kicad
This similar approach will work for the kicad_oce_3D (you need to use same paths for the DESTDIR) but just use the appropriate cmake file as described in the Cirilo project.
I’m running Mario release on windows 64, without any issues… I don’t see any feature missing, the only 3d-viewer feature I cannot see in the new 3d-viewer is the Render Texture option, related to some minor visual aspect of the pcb board… Am I missing something?
Moreover the new 3d-viewer offers some new features like a movable pivot center of rotation and selection of 3d models to be displayed (SMD, TH, Virtual) and raytracing view for a nicer rendering @cbernardo unfortunately, at the moment, I’ve not found a way to build kicad_oce_3D plugin under windows
I can build python oce in mswin, but not the plugin… suggestions would be appreciate
The only feature I believe is missing is the Grid.
I was wondering what people thing of the Grid. Personally it doesn’t work for me. How are other CADs are implementing the Grid?
With the Kicad Grid I cannot have any meaning / size looking in the grid.(there is also no visual scale, numbering… )
Any suggestions?
Let me know if other important features are missing.
I didn’t implemented some visual things from old viewer on this openGL target. (eg: textures, shadows, etc)
Since that are a visual enhancements, I was thinking to apply the efforts in the Raytracing render target… as it should result in a better improvements .
@kammutierspule
Usually there is a ruler tool in CAD software, where you can click on planes/cylinders/circles/edges/vertices and then to the next and depending on the algorithm it will try to give you perpendicular spacing or just shortest distance or if you didn’t click on something else then the determining value for circle (radius) and line (length).
PS: I don’t have a grid active in Inventor either… at least it would be in the way if it was snapping and it’s not needed for visualization - everything is constructed using constraints and dimensions… grid is way to restrictive.
Mario’s latest changes use his new 3DViewer to provide the preview in the Footprint Properties dialog. This means the preview now has a board with the component’s footprint on it so you can adjust the location (and scaling of VRML/X3D models). For those of you who may be using the OCE plugin, just remember that scaling an MCAD model is not a Good Thing™. Wait a day or so for the nightly builds to catch up, or if you build your own code you can just pull in the latest.
Hi @luftek, what do you mean by default option?
The first time it starts the 3d-viewer it will run on default options, then you can change your option.
The footprint preview, is running in a fixed default options (you cannot change it)
At this moment there are no reset defaults.
However, you can go to choose again the colors and you will find the default pallet, so you can choose your color from the defaults.
The “Palette:” have the default colors used by 3d-viewer:
