Any way to copy full name of symbol/footprint to clipboard?

Schematic Library Symbols
1

I’m bringing up a pilot database library (using the kicad_dlb framework), and there is one high-friction point that I’ve run into with my workflow.

When we create a new part in our company database (say, a new version of a specific opamp), our purchasing department typically creates the new record with part descriptions and manufacturers/part numbers. The next step is for a design engineer (for now, me) to assign the Symbol and Footprint values for integration in KiCad.

In 90+% of the cases, I can quickly find an equivalent Symbol browsing the Symbol Editor. But I cannot find any method (at least not on Windows 10 or 11) to copy the library name and symbol name onto the clipboard, to be able to paste into my database record. For example, if I am adding the venerable AD797 I can find the NE5534 symbol, which will work great. But I can’t find any way to copy the text “Amplifier_Operational:NE5534” to the clipboard to then paste into the new database record. Same goes for the Footprint value. From the Footprint Editor, I want to the text “Package_SO:SO-8_3.9x4.9mm_P1.27mm” to then be able to paste into my database record for Footprint.

As it is now, I am forced to separately type the name of the Symbol and Footprint into the database. This is obviously error-prone, and I’d like to find a better solution before I roll my pilot system out to other engineers at our company.

2

Symbol libraries and footprint libraries are all text files. It would be easy to copy it from the text files. I can also imagine making some sort of python script that can automagically add a record in the database with the desired information from the text files. But that all depends on how far your programming skills go… But indeed directly copy it from the library is not possible.

3

If you have the symbol or footprint placed in the editor then you can hit E to open edit dialog and at the bottom it will have a library link which you can copy as text
image

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4

thanks, qu1ck … this is good enough for me to run with!

Now, if I can figure out the python api, I might try creating a plug-in for the Symbol and Footprint editors to do this copy. But that’s for another day

5

Schematic side of kicad does not have an API yet but for pcb it should be quite simple.

sel = pcbnew.GetCurrentSelection()
for p in sel:
    if p.GetClass() == 'FOOTPRINT':
        print(p.GetFPIDAsString())
        break

To copy to clipboard instead of printing you can use wxpython’s clipboard.

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