Missing 3D model
If the 3D model is not displayed/rendered after installing KiCAD on Ubuntu, it may mean one of the following problems:
- incorrect configuration of resource paths or their absence
- no OpenGL libraries or dependencies supporting 3D object rendering
- conflict of older versions of KiCAD with the currently installed one (if they were previously installed)
Solution 1
The presented solution applies to KiCAD version 8 and Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS, but it can also help with your distribution.
If KiCAD was installed using the App Center graphical package manager, uninstall KiCAD in the same way. Additionally, execute the command below to ensure that another version of KiCAD is not present on your system
sudo apt purge kicad
The purge attribute, in addition to the program itself, also removes configuration files related to KiCAD.
Then install KiCAD using the instructions available on the official KiCAD website: https://www.kicad.org/download/details/ubuntu/ following the commands:
sudo add-apt-repository --yes ppa:kicad/kicad-8.0-releases
sudo apt update
sudo apt install --install-recommends kicad
After installation, check the availability of libraries (footprint, 3d models). The following directories should not be empty:
Solution 2
If the first solution did not help, install additional packages:
KiCad and additional libraries: kicad, kicad-libraries, kicad-packages3d
Graphics packages : freeglut3, libopengl0, mesa-utils
Graphics drivers:
Install the appropriate one for your graphics card (e.g.. nvidia-driver or mesa)
Summary
Once installed from the command line, KiCAD should render the 3D model correctly. Open the pic_programmer project (File>Open Demo Project) available after installation.
Remember not to hide the 3D object layer.
