kicad-lib-committers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 10/2/2018 11:21 AM, Rene Pöschl wrote:
> On 02/10/2018 16:24, Wayne Stambaugh wrote:
>> I was playing around with the FCAD script generator project[1] in a
>> failed attempt to generate a 3D model for a DC to DC converter that I am
>> creating for a project at work and intent to push to the kicad
>> libraries.  Are these scripts still being used to create 3D models for
>> KiCad because I cannot get anything to work correctly using the supplied
>> documentation.  If someone could point me in the right direction, I
>> would appreciate it.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Wayne
>>
> You did not provide the link for your [1]

Sorry about that.  It's the same as your [1] below.

> 
> 
> We currently use freecad plus cadquerry for scripting. (We no longer use
> Wings3d) The scripts can be found here under [1]
> 
> The scripts require FreeCad 0.17 or newer. (If you disable geometry
> checks then you can also use 0.15 and 0.16)  Plus the cadquerry module
> [2] version 0.5.2 (If i remember correctly then version 1 had problems
> with the "selectors". I have not worked with these scripts for a while
> and there are newer releases of cadquerry so it might be that the
> problem has been fixed.)

I have installed the latest version of cadquery and I see CadQuery in
the workbench list in FreeCAD and when I select it I see the CadQuery
menu so I'm assuming that's all good.

> 
> All of these are called from the commandline something similar to
> FreeCad script_name.py parameters.

That was the problem.  I wasn't calling out the variant on the command
line.  Thanks for the tip.  Once I'm done with the model I can submit
the symbol, footprint, 3D models, and script changes for approval.

> 
> Scripts that i designed are also directly loadable in the cadquerry
> workbench. (Examples are the molex scripts. There is a subdirectory
> cq_models. Load the script via the menu item CadQuerry -> Open Script.
> This way it is a lot easier to develop the script it self.) The main
> script in such cases only takes care of creating all (selected) variants
> and the export process (including the addition of colours.)

I don't think this is the case with the DC to DC converter script but I
can get it to create the model so I'm moving it the right direction.

> 
> The best place to get further help is via an issue at that repo or on
> the user forum.
> 
> ---
> 
> Another maybe easier option is to design your 3d file using freecad and
> then use kicad stepup to export the resulting file for kicad. (It will
> automatically generate the wrl and step files in the correct scaling and
> if you choose also with our standard colour scheme.)

I would rather take advantage of existing script based model generators
rather than create models by hand.  My parametric modeling skills are
weak and I really don't have a lot of free time to work on them.

Thanks for the help,

Cheers,

Wayne

> 
> The third option is to use whatever 3d modeling program you like (Catia,
> Siemens NX, Creo, ...), export step, import that step file into freecad
> and then use stepup to get the wrl/step pair for kicad. Or use the
> generated step file directly. (The same works with manufacturer supplied
> 3d models. Here you might need to take a close look at the license of
> such models.)
> 
> For stepup the best place to get more info is the user forum. But i
> would guess also via an issue over at its github repo: [3] Stepup can be
> directly installed using the Addon Manager of freecad (tools -> Addon
> Manager) A cheatsheet can be found under [4]
> 
> ---
> 
> [1]:
> https://github.com/easyw/kicad-3d-models-in-freecad/tree/master/cadquery/FCAD_script_generator
> 
> 
> [2]: https://github.com/jmwright/cadquery-freecad-module
> 
> [3]: https://github.com/easyw/kicadStepUpMod
> 
> [4]:
> https://github.com/easyw/kicadStepUpMod/raw/master/demo/kicadStepUp-cheat-sheet.pdf
> 
> 
> 
> 
>