Can not import .kicad_sym

Schematic Library Symbols
31

There are use cases for importing a symbol and adding a library. The former is good when you want to add one or a few to your own library without accepting the whole library and name. The latter is good when it’s a collection of related symbols you want that should stay together.

OP it looks like you didn’t unpack the zip file so there were no .kicad_sym files to look for. The file chooser here isn’t like those OS file choosers that can look into zip archives.

32

Thanks again for your reply.

I have unzipped the files. It is filtered out by the mask excluding .kicad_sym files…

Kind regards
Pedro

33

Are you in the manage libraries dialogue or the import symbol dialogue? Others seem to get a filter box. BTW I think it’s a bug that a blank filter isn’t equal to *.*.

Also you never told us your KiCad version.

34

In your version, pull down the Support Formats list - is .kicad_sym listed?

Kind regards
Pedro

35

I have v7 so it may have changed in v8. I have a dropdown selection like this:

image

Other choices (which I cannot show and take a screenshot of) are .kicad_sym only or .lib only.

I should probably leave this topic since it may be different in v8 and what I write may not be valid.

36

Thank you,

In V8, the .kicad_sym has been removed!

I want someone to put it back ASAP…

Kind regards
Pedro

37

Raise an issue on Gitlab then. There may already be one you can upvote.

38

Is it Gitlab or Github?

39

KiCad moved to Gitlab some time ago. Easiest way to get there is from Help > Report Bug.

40

I’m not a member of Gitlab, nor do I want to be…

Kind regards
Pedro

41

Hope that enough other people think it’s a bug then.

42

It’s a bug that has been fixed. Check it out in 8.0.1-rc1

43

Thanks for that update.

How do I get the fix?

Kind regards
Pedro

44

You can help test -rc1, or wait for the official 8.0.1.

45

Thanks for that info.

My system is Linux Tumbleweed (from OpenSUSE). Software from other distributions (like Ubuntu) are often problematic. I don’t want to break my system, so I’ll wait for the update to come via OpenSUSE…

My workaround will be - add the new symbol as a library, use cut-n-paste to create a new symbol, delete the added library…

Thanks everyone for your help. :slight_smile:

Kind regards
Pedro

46

Yeah, I’m on openSUSE too but I don’t even want to use Tumbleweed in case it disrupts my system. So I use the repos for 15.5, and 8.0.0 has just landed there but I’ll wait for 8.0.1 or even 8.0.2. I don’t make boards that often that I must have the new 8.0 features now.

47

Ahoy!

I have both. Leap 15.4 on another machine. I haven’t looked back since installing Tumbleweed on this machine. I don’t know if they have a migration package.

I was happy to hear that Leap will continue through to V16, and hopefully beyond.

I’ve got Tumbleweed setup to autonomously manage updates, which normally works well. Except for the other day when I opened KiCAD and it said “Welcome to version 8…” :laughing:

Kind regards
Pedro

48

Yeah well Tumbleweed is the guinea pig area and KiCad isn’t a major application for me so I don’t want to risk problems with other applications to have the bleeding edge. 15.6 comes out in June anyway. But this is off-topic for KiCad so I’ll stop here.

49

Or when people are stuck and need to get access to a symbol . . . it’s then trivial to then Open and Save As the specific symbols needed.

I struggled with the libraries when I first started with KiCad, I got done what I needed to get done but by chance rather than design, I always felt a little unsure of what I was doing, so I do have sympathy for users struggling with libraries.

50

Hi all,

I have just received the v8.0.1 update via Tumbleweed, and I can confirm that *.kicad_sym is back on the menu - YAY!!!

Kind regards
Pedro

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