I’m fairly new to KiCAD, using Win10 Pro, played a bit with 5.99, then 6.07 and have been learning 7.0.8 for some weeks now. While attempting to update symbol libary environment variables I’ve wiped away the global symbol list and their symbols. Can’t find them, looked everywhere.
Read where renaming KiCAD’s configuration directory while KiCAD is closed, then reopening KiCAD it will cause the user to be asked whether to install global libraries. Doesn’t happen.
But, I’ve scoured the Internet and this forum for exactly what is meant by the “KiCAD configuration directory” so that I’m sure I am renaming the right directory…and find nothing but this euphemistic term.
Is it in C:\Program Files, C:Users\name\KiCAD? Where is it? I’ve renamed the later, no joy. I’ve reset the environment variables back to their defaults and I get the global symbol LIST but no symbol appears in the right pane. I’ve even uninstalled KiCAD 7.0.8 and reinstalled it again, opened an existing project and still no global symbols showing to the right of the symbol list. Surely there is a need to have this global library recovery procedure described more comprehensively.
“Configuration directory” for KiCad 7.0 on Windows is: %APPDATA%\kicad\7.0
Specifically, sym-lib-table and fp-lib-table files can be deleted for the initial dialogs to appear.
Default library tables are usually at these locations: C:\Program Files\KiCad\7.0\share\kicad\symbols\sym-lib-table C:\Program Files\KiCad\7.0\share\kicad\footprints\fp-lib-table
Thanks for your reply but from what my Win10 system shows, your answer is partially right.
What I find is the path to these two table files is: %AppData%\Roaming\kicad.
I’ll try deleting these tables to see if the initial dialogs appear when I restart KiCAD.
So, deleting these tables did NOT make the dialogs appear when restarting KiCAD.
However, renaming the kicad directory under the Roaming directory did.
%APPDATA% points to C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming on my Win11 system.
Your system must have been configured in a special way if it points to something else.
Yes, I confirmed that %AppData% points to “C:\Users\username|AppData\Roaming” and renaming the “kicad” folder under Roaming did cause the installation of the global library table dialogs to appear.
No, I just never new that %AppData% included the Roaming subdir, so my system is not configured in any special way. It is like your Win11.
“On my system, moving:…definitely makes the…dialogs appear.”
Deleting the sym-lib-table and fp-lib-table files is tantamount to moving them (e.g. to the trash) but it did not make the dialogs appear. Renaming the kicad subdir that contained these tables, however, did.