So, today, I made my first thing in FreeCAD. When I was testing out some footprints and components for the Pomodoro Timer PCB, I noticed that none were exactly the type of buzzer that I had. Seeing as how my buzzer is pretty much a simple cylinder, I figured it was the perfect object to try and model in FreeCAD. In the end, I’d end up both with a working 3D model to use in KiCAD, as well as some basic experience with FreeCAD.
After quite some fiddling to get things working, and some initial experiments, I finally produced the part in 3D with exact measurements:
Importing that into KiCAD was actually super easy. There was literally a button to just locate any type of .step file and import it as the 3D model for a part that I had selected. So, happily, I put that part on my board. And, to my surprise, it unveiled a hidden error:
When I checked the fit of the part, I could see that the actual pins didn’t fit! That sure would have been an issue had I ordered the PCB! I measured twice, and then another time; I checked my measurements in FreeCAD, and everything worked out well. The only outcome could be that the footprint in KiCAD wasn’t correct. Good thing to catch at this stage.