Bom csv output is wrong

You are correct – a bom from pcb uses semicolons. It is a little crappy runt bom. Use the schematic bom
test3-(from-pcb).csv (887 Bytes)
test3_bom_(from-sch).csv (4.3 KB)
If you open in text editor you see the delimiters. They both open as csv in librecalc

In Libre, the CSV open setting’s remain as last used. Thus, need to just open the CSV file from Kicad’s main panel (may need to click refresh if needed)… video below…

And, it works with the BOM from Schematic, too… (but not shown in video)

black coffee please stop pushing libre. i dont use it. only heard about it from you. also notice i am on windows. please move on.

either way should it not work correctly? runt or not. why have multiple bom functions? any bom initiator should run the same program routine (which may or may not lead to adjusting options like sub scripts specific to format)

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I am just a user who started with kicad v6 a year ago. I don’t know why there is a generate-bom in the pcb or why it only generates a small subset of fields. I have not used it until now to test your issue. I don’t know why it uses frickin’ semicolons either. This is open-source software and I would guess that different people developed the different modules. Everyone wants to help. You’ll get more help if you’re not so arrogant. Did you try it vis the sch module? That is where it should be generated and the scripts can be customized to your liking.

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We’re going to remove both of them and replace it with a better system that doesn’t require you to write Python to customize the CSV

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Ah, you’re generating from the PCB editor. At the moment BOMs are generated from eeschema*. I can assure you that I have generated CSVs from KiCad and submitted for assembly. Sorry I’m away from my computer and another person will have to show you how.

* Hopefully this anomaly will go away some day.

i was rather hoping the people on here controlled that. it’s why i posted. i did a work around ages ago. but it’s still something that needs to be either fixed or removed.

If you had posted a screenshot at the start we would have noticed. I think you are able to by now.

There is a process for reporting such anomalies and it was done 2 years ago. The vast majority of us are just users so can’t “just fix it”.

----------:neutral_face:----------

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Ask at excel forum.

You’re having some weird problems. What’s wrong with recommending a good program to you?
I used LibreOffice to process BOM when I was using Protel and since I moved in 2017 to KiCad I still use LibreOffice for that. When opening csv you can decide if separator is tab, comma, semicolon, space or other (specified by you), or any combination of them.

And what?

Use your mind.
If someone draw schematic and not made PCB and he wants to get BOM then he need BOM output from schematic.
If someone made PCB without schematic and want to get BOM then he need BOM output from pcb design program.

Can you hear yourself?
These two (schematic and pcb) started from being separate applications so each of these BOM generations have to base on different data that each of them have. I don’t know the developers plans but it looks that cooperation between schematic and pcb gradually is getting closer and closer so may be in some time in future your requirement will be fulfilled.
You are free to wait for that moment.

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… then I tell him to go back and draw a schematic first.

Some stubborn people complain “the circuit is so simple I do not need a schematic”. My counter argument is: If the schematic is so simple, it takes 5 minutes to draw, and KiCad works much better if you have a schematic (and the resulting netlist). Just separating nets with a clearance from each other is worth drawing the schematic first.

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I have never tried to make PCB without schematic but as you noticed there are some stubborn people.
From discussions at forum I suppose it is possible to specify nets at PCB without schematic so also the clearance will work (I suppose).

The question was like the means of kicad to make a normal readable exel file) The answer is not clear… If you do not understand the essence of the question, pay attention to how this is done in Altium it is paid and cannot be compared? Good look how it’s done in EasyEDA Pro…

Some locales use the comma as a decimal separator rather than a full stop. Using a semicolon (which works as a separator in these circumstances) works more universally. Initially, KiCad was a French project (jp-charras was the original programmer, I believe) and the virgule (comma) is the decimal separator in France.

I actually know quite a few programs (mostly european developed) who use semicolon instead of comma as their default csv separator (because they use comma as decimal separator) and I don’t think it is such a big problem as some here make about it…

Who prevents you from concluding in xlsx how is this done in all normal cad?

normal is a point of perspective. for me it is normal that csv’s can have different delimiters and therefore I learned to work around it. most parser and programs I know also account for the fact csv’s can have different separators and offer different options while opening them. I am actually pretty sure excel asks every time you open a CSV, what delimiter is used in the CSV btw. so sorry, your claim of “normal” or “standard” does not work in this case.

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Tojan You do not understand the essence of the problem regardless of the choice of encoding when opening the exel file csv you get confusion… All other popular cad such as altium easyeda etc. Perfectly generate XLSX fails… In the case of kicad, do you have to use crutches or do you disagree? There is a general unification between Cad and the creation of bom is no exception. You try to tell me that crutches are great and everyone else does not understand))

Using comma’s as separators in a csv file is about the stupidest thing of the whole format, as most of the world uses comma’s in numbers. Caret Separated Values would have been much better, Or semi colon or whatever. Almost half of the punctuation keys would have been better than that silly comma.

Wikipedia has some points on CSV:

And the Introduction of https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4180 (Dated October 2005) is worth copying here:

Introduction.

The comma separated values format (CSV) has been used for exchanging
and converting data between various spreadsheet programs for quite
some time. Surprisingly, while this format is very common, it has
never been formally documented. Additionally, while the IANA MIME
registration tree includes a registration for
“text/tab-separated-values” type, no MIME types have ever been
registered with IANA for CSV. At the same time, various programs and
operating systems have begun to use different MIME types for this
format.

So overall, it’s just a big mess.