KicadStepUp Workbench

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Revision as of 23:22, 22 February 2020 by Kunda1 (talk | contribs) (Enlarge and center workbench icon + add caption beneath + moved templates outside of translation tags)

The KicadStepUp External Workbench Icon

Introduction

Kicad StepUp Workbench is aimed at helping both KiCad and FreeCAD users in collaborating with electrical (ECAD) and mechanical (MCAD) design.

Background

Kicad (website) is an Open Source Electronics Design Automation Suite.

Features

In progress

  • Load kicad board and parts in FreeCAD and export it to STEP (or IGES) for a full ECAD MCAD collaboration
  • Load kicad_mod footprint in FreeCAD to easy and precisely align the mechanical model to kicad footprint
  • Convert the STEP 3D model of parts, board, enclosure to VRML with Materials properties for the best use in kicad
  • Check interference and collisions for enclosure and footprint design
  • Design a new pcb Edge with FreeCAD Sketcher and PUSH it to an existing kicad_pcb Board
  • PULL a pcb Edge from a kicad_pcb Board, edit it in FC Sketcher and PUSH it back to kicad
  • Design a new footprint in FreeCAD to get the power of Sketch in footprints
  • Generate Blender compatible VRML files


Installation

Kicad StepUp is part of the external workbenches, and can be automatically installed using the FreeCAD Add-on Manager which comes bundled with FreeCAD 0.17, under the Tools → Add-On Manager menu.

Usage

  • Please see the kicad StepUp cheat sheet to learn how to get started.
  • If you are inspired you can add more elaborate documentation to this wiki page.


References

Side Note about External workbenches

FreeCAD workbenches are easy to program in Python, there are therefore many people developing additional workbenches outside of the FreeCAD main developers.

The external workbenches page has some information and tutorials on some of them, and the FreeCAD Addons project aims at gathering them and making them easily installable from within FreeCAD.

New workbenches are in development, stay tuned!