Transfer from Altium to KiCad

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Hello,

I am a new user of KiCad and have a question regarding the importing project from Altium to KiCad version 7.
How to import the PCB libraries from Altium so that 3D models that is assigned for some footprint exists in the KiCad for the same footprint? I asked this because when I added the libary from Altium into KiCad and assigned footprint to some component, 3D model which exist in Altium, doesn’t exist in the KiCad. Is it possible at all, or I need to draw new 3D model for every component?

Thank you

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Welcome @Ae031

Symbols, Footprints and 3D models are all saved in independent libraries with Kicad.

Just as you created footprint libraries and then imported footprints, you will have to create 3D libraries then import your 3D models.

Once the 3D models have been imported, you can open the Footprint Properties and then reassign 3D images to those Footprints.

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Well this is something to think about.

The Altium PCB importer already imports 3D models. The problem is more to do with the internal architecture of KiCad and requirement to have a separate file as the 3D model.

For now the workaround is to add all your Altium footprints to an Altium PCB and import that board to kicad.

If you’d like to create a gitlab feature request, we can discuss there - maybe we can see if this can be improved in some way for KiCad v8. (See Report an Issue | KiCad EDA)

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Would not the same problem occur if importing a Kicad project into Altium, or do Altium store 3D with footprints instead of links in footprints to 3D libraries?

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In altium, at least 3 library formats in 3d database format are stored separately…

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Hi all and thank you for your answers.

I just want to write how I generate 3D model files from Altium to KiCad. In the PCB Library editor you go Tools » Extract 3D Models and then in the KiCad you can assign desired 3D model to footprint. Hopefully someone finds this useful.

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Altium can store 3D models directly inside footprints and boards (but this isn’t required)

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