It’a been a couple of years since I switched from Eagle to Kicad (i.e. when they switched their pricing policy to recurrent payments).
Now I would like to convert my old kicad files, and as there are about 15 years of eagle projects, it’s really a pain, even if the process isn’t complicated:
File → Import non-kicad project → Eagle project
Navigate to the .sch, .brd pair location
Open (at this point, a popup windows asking for “Edit Mapping of Imported Layers”
Choose auto-match layers (left bottom)
Save & quit the PCB
Save & quit the schematic
And it seems to be done. It generates a .pretty file, therefore it’s probably not linked to the Kicad
libs, but hey, it’s fully automated and after converting 50+ projects, I must say it works well.
Now, is there a way to do this in a fully automated way? Otherwise I will spend a day at least repeating the actions listed above.
But I have to ask, will you be reusing all of those 15 years of projects? Won’t that take another 15 years? Why not convert as required only the ones you will reuse?
Thanks for your reply!
You’re right, I don’t know yet what I may reuse.
But there are 2 things:
Not sure it happens to you, but every year, I do some lab cleaning, and throw away old cables, old boards that I will probably never reuse. And it happens sometimes that a few months later, I regret having thrown away so many cables, especially the one I’m looking for.
If I keep my old development tree, and if I need an old project, I will have to convert it anyway. As I will surely not remember how to do, it will take some time. Probably not days, but anyway it will take some time. So if I had a tool that converts the whole tree once for all, it would be really handy and useful. So it will take some time, and probably the same amount of time everytime I have to dig up an old project.
So a one-shot conversion would be very useful, at least to me. And from Kicad’s “marketting” point of view, if you can add to its features “Instantly import your old development tree”, I’m sure it would have some positive effect in attracting new users.
By the way, can the conversion be scripted? I mean, you send commands to Kicad, and even if this functionality doesn’t exist yet, you can make your own.
Maybe also, by the time Kicad 9 rolls off the production line there may not be a conversion. Then it will be re-install 6, convert, then upgrade whatever to 9… Starting to get really messy?
Bad idea!
You should be installing new storage space or building a whole new storage shed.
Do you know the price of 1 square meter in Japan? Sometimes it’s more economical
to throw things away…
And beside this all the projects I have converted right now are really good with the
standard settings (i.e. convert all the layers as the software understands it, no trouble
at all). So yes, it takes time, but I don’t think it will take months, neither weeks.
Sorry @roboya, I couldn’t help myself with that comment of mine.
I’m a self- confessed hoarder of everything electronic… even my wife has given up on me.
When i die, they won’t have to dig a grave, just empty my shed on top of me. That should put me about 12 feet (4metres) under.
Well of course, if they don’t “spark joy” any more, it’s time to Konmari them.
OT but years ago I read stories of expatriates in Japan picking up perfectly good hi-fi equipment at kerbside waste collections. Does that still happen?
It does. I recently trashed a DVD player and a coffe maker, both in working state.
But in recent years, there are rules to trash things, so you have to take an appointment (reserve a time slot) for the trashed things to be picked up, in order to recycle properly. So you have to hurry if you see a DVD player or a coffee maker. Beside that, there is no guarantee that what you found will work.
If you go back home for some kind of carriage, it will be gone when you’re back.
Ok, back to the subject… It will be useless now that I have converted everything, but I’m sure it’s still worth developing.
