← Back to team overview

kicad-lib-committers team mailing list archive

Re: FCAD script generator.

 

On 10/2/2018 12:11 PM, Wayne Stambaugh wrote:
> 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
>>

One more quick question.  I noticed in the DC to DC converter script
that all of the dimensions in the are in millimeters which makes the 3D
model wrong scale for KiCad.  Is the preferred script method to create
the models in millimeters then scale them for KiCad using FreeCAD or
scale the dimensions for kicad when creating new script models?  I'm
finding it rather cumbersome to scale the model in FreeCAD so I was just
curious.

Cheers,

Wayne



Follow ups

References