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Electronics => PCB/EDA/CAD => KiCad => Topic started by: Oslaw on August 30, 2018, 11:09:01 am

Title: KiCAD Raytracing
Post by: Oslaw on August 30, 2018, 11:09:01 am
Hello,
I just downloaded KiCAD version five. Nice Software but when I tried to use raytracing in the 3D viewer it crashed.
Please can anyone tell me the problem and the solution.

NB: I am using windows 8 pro.

Thank you.
Title: Re: KiCAD Raytracing
Post by: Ranayna on August 30, 2018, 11:18:28 am
Maybe someone (though most likely not me) would be able to answer if you post a few more details...
Most important:

- your operating system
- KiCad version
- your graphics hardware and driver version
- any error message you get

Title: Re: KiCAD Raytracing
Post by: Rerouter on August 30, 2018, 11:24:06 am
On the top bar, go to "Preferences" and click on "Accelerated toolset" if it gives any kind of error about OpenGL, that will be your root issue,
Title: Re: KiCAD Raytracing
Post by: CM800 on August 30, 2018, 01:32:43 pm
I wonder if they will support RTX Realtime ray tracing...  :-DD
Title: Re: KiCAD Raytracing
Post by: technix on September 06, 2018, 05:02:02 am
You need a solid CPU and GPU combo for this. What is your hardware specs?

The two 4K ray tracing renders I posted here are generated using an overclocked Intel Xeon E3-1231v3 (3.5/3.9GHz 4C/8T Haswell,) 32GB DDR3-1600 memory and Gigabyte GTX 1060 3GB Gaming G1 under macOS High Sierra.

The 3D view, regardless mode, doesn’t work well without a good GPU: it doesn’t work on my HPC workstation, which has dual Intel Xeon E5-2680 (2.7/3.5GHz 2x 8C/16T Sandy Bridge,) 128GB DDR3-1600 memory but an Sapphire R9 380 8GD5 OC graphics card.

It appeared to me that in order to run KiCad 5 smoothly, you need no less than a mid-tier 2016-2017 gaming PC.
Title: Re: KiCAD Raytracing
Post by: technix on September 06, 2018, 05:10:06 am
I wonder if they will support RTX Realtime ray tracing...  :-DD
Doubt it. Although using RTX to trace a complicated board at 8K resolution would be an achievement, both for nVidia RTX and either AMD Theradripper or Intel Core i9-K.
Title: Re: KiCAD Raytracing
Post by: Rerouter on September 06, 2018, 10:15:31 am
The reason it doesnt work for certain intel onboard GPUs is due to a bug in the intel openGL driver relating to buffer copies. This is currently be patched.