Author Topic: KiCAD photo realistic 3D rendering?  (Read 33503 times)

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Offline firewalkerTopic starter

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Re: KiCAD photo realistic 3D rendering?
« Reply #25 on: February 14, 2016, 12:16:49 am »
Excellent!
Become a realist, stay a dreamer.

 

Offline CatalinaWOW

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Re: KiCAD photo realistic 3D rendering?
« Reply #26 on: February 14, 2016, 12:25:49 am »
I know free_electron finds these things useless, but they are useful beyond marketing.

While the 3D cad programs can also provide these (in large shops that have those tools), the renderings also are useful in repair/calibration manuals.  If the product is to be produced in kit form they can be used in the assembly instructions.  And for low budget hobby people and very small shops they can even assist in visualizing how it will be mounted and packaged.  I am sure there are other worthwhile functions they can perform. 
 

Offline easyw

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Re: KiCAD photo realistic 3D rendering?
« Reply #27 on: February 16, 2016, 09:29:55 am »
Hi,
I just released the new kicad StepUp GUI:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/kicadstepup/
here another 3D photo realistic result :)

fully aligned to the 3D mechanical MCAD model

for a real ECAD MCAD collaboration, with a touch of artistic passion  8)
 

Offline MarkF

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Re: KiCAD photo realistic 3D rendering?
« Reply #28 on: February 16, 2016, 10:41:16 am »
Here are a few samples I've done with DipTrace.  The last two pics I imported from Eagle files.  Sorry, I don't have any experience with KiCad.

I don't find the 3-D image useless.  I have found a few subtle problems in layouts I'm working on.
 

Offline timofonic

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Re: KiCAD photo realistic 3D rendering?
« Reply #29 on: February 24, 2016, 09:47:41 pm »
@easyw Thanks a lot for your work!

Will STEP be too difficult to achieve?
 

Offline easyw

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Re: KiCAD photo realistic 3D rendering?
« Reply #30 on: March 01, 2016, 09:31:49 pm »
@easyw Thanks a lot for your work!

Will STEP be too difficult to achieve?
if you mean STEP inside kicad, it will be a quite long run to achieve...
but if you use kicad StepUp you can have this panorama:
1) 3D of VRML board and models in kicad for ECAD designing
2) 3D of VRML board and models in blender for photo realistic rendering
3) 3D of STEP  board and models in FreeCAD or any other mechanical CAD for mechanical designing

I just updated kicad StepUp with a user friendly GUI, so the only thing to do is just click a button to load board and models in MCAD world
https://forum.kicad.info/t/kicad-stepup-new-exporter-for-3d-mcad-feedbacks-are-welcome/1048/59

and don't forget the visual 3D aligner to align kicad footprint and 3D STEP model
https://youtu.be/O6vr8QFnYGw
The requirement is a MCAD library, that would be also a must also for having a STEP viewer inside kicad...

so I don't miss so much at the moment and I think this panorama is even more better in respect of a direct STEP integration;  in fact you can have the 3D viewer with materials in kicad because of VRML, which would not available for STEP format

Maurice
 

Offline ElektroQuark

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Re: KiCAD photo realistic 3D rendering?
« Reply #31 on: March 02, 2016, 08:32:45 am »
Hi Maurice,

Do the alignment tools change 3D model properties in KiCad?

Offline easyw

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Re: KiCAD photo realistic 3D rendering?
« Reply #32 on: March 02, 2016, 08:54:40 am »
Do the alignment tools change 3D model properties in KiCad?
when you have aligned your 3D model to footprint in FreeCAD with StepUp tools, just click on the "Export STEP & VRML scaled" and you will get both STEP and VRML models to be used in kicad 3D viewer ... alignment parameters in footprint would be as in the kicadStepUp-starter-Guide file
scale 1 1 1
offset 0 0 0
rotation 0 0 z-angle

those parameters are not changed by the tools, it user's responsibility to check those in pcbnew board file and in footprint
The new StepUp GUI would warn you in case of wrong parameters

please have a look at the new video tutorial
https://youtu.be/h6wMU3lE_sA
Maurice
« Last Edit: March 02, 2016, 08:57:18 am by easyw »
 

Offline ElektroQuark

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Re: KiCAD photo realistic 3D rendering?
« Reply #33 on: March 02, 2016, 09:03:54 am »
Oh, I see. I thought you do the alignment in KiCad not in Freecad.
Those unknown icons in KiCad's 3d Viewer confused me.
Thank you.

Offline easyw

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Re: KiCAD photo realistic 3D rendering?
« Reply #34 on: March 02, 2016, 01:55:01 pm »
I moved all my StepUp code in FreeCAD because of its powerful APIs...
Moreover you can use all the StepUp tools functions as a single FC Macro ( >5K sloc   ;) )...
That improved kicad compatibility of the tools (compatible from 4.0 onwards), and let users to approach MCAD without almost anything knowledge of it, faciliting ECAD MCAD collaboration for a better enclosure and mechanical design
 

Offline thommo

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Re: KiCAD photo realistic 3D rendering?
« Reply #35 on: March 11, 2016, 10:46:20 pm »
Hi guys,

I am neither an elec engineer, nor an industrial designer, but I am project managing a situation where we need to bring the output from Kicad (all the models are in place already I believe), across to Solidworks, for inclusion into the mechanicals for, among other things, interference checking.

Does anyone out there have a proven, efficient workflow, and preferably a step by step instruction set for us to do this?

Would really appreciate the help.
The Kicad guy has no 3D CAD experience and the IndDes no electronics design.

We'd love a simple path to go back in the reverse direction also if possible. SWorks components into Kicad.

First attempts have produced some massive file sizes from Kicad's output (STEP) of several GBs

Thanks in advance.
 

Offline easyw

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Re: KiCAD photo realistic 3D rendering?
« Reply #36 on: March 12, 2016, 08:00:06 am »
Does anyone out there have a proven, efficient workflow, and preferably a step by step instruction set for us to do this?
Hi, at the moment the only full solution for bidirectional ECAD MCAD integration is kicad StepUp
You can download the tools here
https://sourceforge.net/projects/kicadstepup/files/latest/download
a good point to start is
https://sourceforge.net/projects/kicadstepup/files/kicadStepUp-starter-Guide.pdf/download
Your requirements are
Kicad stable or dev
FreeCAD 0.15 or 0.16
Quote from: thommo
The Kicad guy has no 3D CAD experience and the IndDes no electronics design.
a minimum experience in both environment is required to better understand the collaboration process
Quote from: thommo
We'd love a simple path to go back in the reverse direction also if possible. SWorks components into Kicad.
kicad StepUp will let you have a bidirectional ECAD MCAD collaboration... you need to use FreeCAD as a MCAD sw for an easier interchange.
here a nice pdf on the collaboration process
http://www.prostep.org/fileadmin/freie_downloads/Guidlines-UseCases/UseCases/ProSTEP-iViP_Use-Case_ECAD-MCAD-Collaboration_1.0.pdf

I would suggest to have a look at kicad forum
https://forum.kicad.info/t/kicad-stepup-new-exporter-for-3d-mcad-feedbacks-are-welcome/1048
https://forum.kicad.info/t/how-to-interactive-align-3d-model-to-pcbnew-footprint-new-tool-for-kicad-in-altium-style/1711
An other requirement is a library of MCAD 3D models to be used in kicad ECAD and in MCAD (FreeCAD and Solidworks)
At the forum you can get a lot of useful info
https://forum.kicad.info/t/3d-new-library-for-mechanical-cad-exporting-and-enclosure-design/1763
Quote from: thommo
First attempts have produced some massive file sizes from Kicad's output (STEP) of several GBs
that may depend on board size, number of components, size of enclosure, size of 3D MCAD models etc...
I don't get normally more then ten MB with medium board and full 3D MCAD components...
Consider you can convert to MCAD only relevant 3D parts (i.e. connectors or big parts, discard i.e. small resistors capacitors etc) and/or you can use bounding boxes for some 3D parts

https://hackaday.io/project/7926-kicad-stepup-script-hacks-mcad-world
feel free to ask if you require any further information
Maurice
 

Offline thommo

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Re: KiCAD photo realistic 3D rendering?
« Reply #37 on: March 14, 2016, 04:56:22 am »
Thanks Easyw,

Your instructions are crystal clear, and the first test worked perfectly.

Another question that you may be able to answer from your practical experience;

When creating a 'pair' of library items such as a Footprint and a 3D Model, what is the industry standard in relation to the Global Reference Position - eg 0.0 for the x.y axis?

Can is be placed almost anywhere - eg. at the middle of say Pin 1, or the Top Left corner or, is it essential to place it in the middle of the component?

The reason I ask this question is not so much to do with creating a PCB Layout, but rather when it comes time to manufacture the PCA.

Is it important to place 0.0 in the center of the component so the the PnP machine knows where to 'place' the component on the board?
If not, then how does it know the correct offsets?

Thanks
 

Offline easyw

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Re: KiCAD photo realistic 3D rendering?
« Reply #38 on: March 14, 2016, 08:47:16 am »
Thanks Easyw,
Your instructions are crystal clear, and the first test worked perfectly.
I'm glad my kicad StepUp tools worked fine for you  :)
Quote from: thommo
When creating a 'pair' of library items such as a Footprint and a 3D Model, what is the industry standard in relation to the Global Reference Position - eg 0.0 for the x.y axis?
Can is be placed almost anywhere - eg. at the middle of say Pin 1, or the Top Left corner or, is it essential to place it in the middle of the component?
have a look at here
https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-library/wiki/Kicad-Library-Convention
https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-library/wiki/Kicad-Library-Convention#6-general-rules-for-footprints
Pad 1 is on the left first, then at the top, except at the top for PLCC (IPC-7351).
For through-hole components, footprint anchor is set on pad 1.
For surface-mount devices, footprint anchor is placed in the middle with respect to device lead ends (IPC-7351).

IPC-7351 is the ref
http://pcbget.ru/Files/Standarts/IPC_7351.pdf
http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/44883/designing-pick-and-place-friendly-cad-library-parts
https://github.com/waynegramlich/pcb_footprints/raw/master/IPC-7351BNamingConvention.pdf
Cheers
Maurice
 
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