I’ve been using KiCad 5 for almost 6 months, but I’m having trouble viewing the entire component in 3D. How can I get a complete 3D view of the components in the PCB layout?
If you were using KiCad 7 or 8 you simply use Alt + 3 can’t remember for V5, it’s been so long since I used it.
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KiCad is a quite fast moving target. Each new version introduces many new useful features, and also existing features are constantly improved. For example the interactive router is ever increasing in it’s ability to find paths.
The change from V5 to V6 was particularly big. V6 has a much more robust file system (V5 works with difficult to manage [project]-cache.lib and [project]-rescue.lib files while all used symbols and footprints are stored inside the schematic and PCB files in later KiCad versions. V6 also changed all icons in KiCad, and that will take quite some getting used to if you ever update. After V6 further updates are far more incremental for the user. Except for the newly added features of course, I do not experience big changes or any difficulty when going from V6 to V7 or from V7 to V8.
KiCad V5 was when KiCad started becoming more mainstream and more popular. I think it was also when autodesk bought eagle and a lot of people switched to KiCad. People started making tutorials for KiCad around that time, but there are some usable or even good tutorials for later KiCad versions too.
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What problem are you having? 3D view definitely did exist in v5.1 with the same hotkey: Alt+3. See here: Pcbnew | 5.1 | English | Documentation | KiCad and scroll down a bit.
Documentation for older versions of KiCad can be reached from the current version’s documentaition using the dropdown near the top right to select the version.
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