Confused between .step and .stp files

[marti.bastida]

Hi there. A little of history:

I have a .x3d file which I have converted to .stp with a specfic program. The program screws with the dimensions and the .stp model is 0,00254 times what it should be (no matter what I do, so I have just left it like that).

To solve this I have imported the .stp file into fusion 360 and scaled it down. The problem comes when I save it: it saves it as .step (maybe because the part has different components) but I need it as .stp to be able to import it into kicad.

Is this possible?

[MRWakefield]

Yes, there's no difference between STEP and STP, they're the same format. All you need to do is rename the file you export from F360 from .STEP to .STP then you'll be able to import it to KiCAD.

[marti.bastida]

I've found the underlying problem:

After importing the .stp file into fusion360 and scaling it down I export it as .step (I don't have any other option) with no problems. However, if I then try to open that .step in fusion360 it appears to be blank. That's why kicad showed nothing when I changed to .stp extension and imported it into Kicad.

I attach the .stp file which is not scaled down and the .step file where you can see that it contains nothing (it should contain the same as the .stp file but scaled down by a factor of 0.00254)

[marti.bastida]

I attach the .step file here compressed as zip since the page doesn't allow me to attach it on the previous reply as .step

[MRWakefield · Accepted solution]

Ok, I've opened the file and I see it consists of mesh bodies only. This might well be the problem with your re-exported file, as F360 might not support this and I'm not sure that KiCAD will either (I could be wrong though!). Regardless of this, I wouldn't even bother using this file. This is such a simple part to model I'd just model it from scratch in Fusion. It will only take a few minutes. If you really wanted to you could use the meshes to construct some mesh sketches but it would still be easier just to model from scratch.