Unable to make models into single parts using KiCad Step Up WB [solved]

[albin]

KiCad Step Up Workbench for FreeCAD want’s all component models to consist of a single part, or it will through a warning when loading the board.

I’m having problem with a few of my component models. I’m not able to make them into a single part.

I’m not sure if this is a bug, or if my workflow is flawed. That’s why I’m asking you and not reporting an issue. Parhaps @maui can be of assitance? But I there should be others that’s using Step Up as well.

This is what I’m doing:

I’m importing this step c0402c104k4ractu.stp (339.7 KB) using
.

Then I get:

I’m then making a Union or a Compound using one of these buttons:

I end up with something like this:

I hit save and export the last part in the list by pressing this button:

But when I open the newly exported step-file it still consists of several parts.

I’ve also tried fusing, but no luck with that either.

Here’s another model I’m having problem with:
c-1473005-1-j1-3d.zip (904.4 KB)

No matter what I do, two little details wants to stay separate in the final step exported from FreeCad.

[maui]

Hi @albin
kSU is preferring single solid models… this is just a preferred way to generate solids for kicad
This is partially because:

• vendor models are almost universally unioned
• there’s a few problems when doing mechanical CAD (MCAD) work with an assembly (i.e. selecting any object in MCAD selects only the particular object rather than the entire model; it also hard to do things like collision test or bounding box check)

Anyway kSu just will warn you and keep loading the assembly.

Particularly the issue with your 3D models is related to the ‘union’ of shapes process…
To obtain a single object, you need to have a ‘watertight’ model (the model should be a single, entirely closed volume that would hold water if filled).
It is similar for making watertight 3D prints.
To obtain that sometimes you need to slightly move internal parts to guarantee overlapping volumes.
For the capacitor you can just delete the ‘kemet’ text and make a union of the remaining parts
For the connector you may need to add some ‘connecting’ solids to make a continuous solid among the 3 objects

[albin]

Hi @maui

Thank you for your quick and detailed answer! That makes perfect sense.

I removed the KEMET text like you proposed. Same thing with a model of fuse. I’ll fix the connector in the way you proposed as well.

Would it be possible to add a check in the “Export 3D Model” function that checks to see if the step file that was exported contains more than one part? It would really help to get a warning if does. As of now, I’m not noticing that until i load the entire board, or if I double check by opening the exported step in FreeCad.

[maui]

there is a button to manually check it…

[albin]

Awesome! There’s so much neat tools to learn in Step Up!