A great confusion in the Schematic Editor/Page Settings

Schematic
1

I am using the latest version of KiCad – 8.0.1 – on Windows 10.

In Page Settings of the Schematic Editor there is field File:

image
image1035×235 7.79 KB

I don’t remember what exactly I did in this window, but somehow my schematic file *.kicad_sch with the full path appeared there; I didn’t even notice that. Should I have noticed that, it would not appear suspicious, since this file name (without the path) appears in the Title Block straight above the Title.

Eventually, I closed the Editor, opened it again and got this popup:
11:34:16 PM: Unexpected ‘version’ in ‘<path\name>.kicad_sch’, line 2, offset 3.

There was also an error message on the top of the Editor window: “Error loading drawing sheet”, and the Title Block completely disappeared. (It would appear eventually, though, then disappear again).

The error popup was very confusing, since *.kicad_sch was perfectly legitimate as a schematic file, but it was blamed in the error popup, since, as I understand now, it was taken as a drawing-sheet file.

Investigating this cunning problem, I noticed quite a few discussions on this matter – see, for example, Error on load: Unexpected version, and people did not resolve it. This is why I have taken liberty to report it.

The resolution of this problem is simple: the File field should be emptied.

2

the File field should be emptied

I take the freedom to correct you: the “File” field should could be emptied.
This field is responsible for the used drawing sheet.
If the File field is empty: Kicad takes a default drawing sheet from the kicad installation.
If the File field points to a correct user defined custom drawing sheet (.dws file): Kicad uses that file for the current schematic
If the File field points to a invalid drawing sheet (.dws file) or a completely different filetype: Kicad is angry and gives you a error message (your case). Admittedly the error message is not really useful.

2 Likes