Tools > Scripting Console? That’s my best guess but I’ve never used it. I’m using a nightly from October under Linux.
Yeah that was my guess too.
But how do you call a plugin from the script console??
Try running it like you would run any other program from the command line?
No that doesn’t work.
I get a" NameError dial_indicator_wizard is not defined" Error
Last thing I can say to try is go to the FAQ link at the top of the page. There is some stuff on scripting there. Evidently you have to import the script to use it and then know how the script works. Just more than I’ve needed at this point so I haven’t done much with scripts.
Yep all kinds of things about scripting, but nothing about how to start/run one in Kicad 
Use of the footprint wizards does not seem to be documented very well. However, they are invoked within KiCad in the Footprint Editor when you press the “New footprint using footprint wizard” button.
Note: if you add or change a footprint wizard you need to restart KiCad to pick up the changes.
You then need to select a wizard
After adjusting parameters as necessary, click the “Export the footprint to the editor”.
Now you have a new footprint, which you need to save to a Footprint library. You can then add the footprint to a PCB.
2 Likes
@acidblue: sorry about hijacking your thread.
I don’t think it’s necessary to involve the core developers in scipt efforts. For my proof-of-concept plugin manager system I created an organization https://github.com/kc-plugin-publishers. We could create an organization for plugin writers, or even a more general organization everything related KiCad scripting and plugins, call interested people to join it and start new repos under that and even move old ones there. In any case something to gather scripts, efforts and people together is good. The curated list is a good start. It should be linked to from the KiCad web site, but it’s not currently.
@bobc: It doesn’t work for me, I get an error, seen in “Messages” tab of the wizard chooser dialog:
File “/home/eeli/.kicad_plugins/dial_indicator_wizard.py”, line 22, in
import HelpfulFootprintWizardPlugin as HFPW
ImportError: No module named HelpfulFootprintWizardPlugin
I tried with Ubuntu daily build and also with self-compiled up-to-date git version.
You need to put footprint wizards into the footprint wizard folder (where HelpfulFootprintWizardPlugin.py is). I don’t know where that is on Linux, I already posted the location for Windows in this thread.
I found out that HelpfulFootprintWizardPlugin.py doesn’t exist anymore, I think you should change your script for it to work with the upcoming 5.0. For example, this is in pcbnew/python/plugins/touch_slider_wizard.py in the git source:
from pcbnew import *
import FootprintWizardBase
import pcbnew
class TouchSliderWizard(FootprintWizardBase.FootprintWizard):The Messages tab shows the search paths, they are the same than the normal plugins paths.
Thanks for letting me know, I wasn’t aware of that change. My policy is to only support stable releases.
FYI, I found some help for converting: https://github.com/KiCad/Footprint_Wizards/wiki/Updating-Older-Wizards. I’m trying it myself…
For anyone interested, I created an issue in bobc’s above mentioned repo which includes a working version for the newer (I think it’s daily builds after Jan 2017) KiCads.
Thank you bobc. You the man!
Good morning.
One thing I cannot understand: is this tool designed only for drawing circular footprints, or is it also suitable for placing components in a layout? Reading the quoted Bobc post, it seems that one should first draw the ticks (where the components will then be placed) by the Circular array tool…then there should exist a way for “attaching” the components in the layout to the previously drawn ticks…or am I wrong?
Testing the same function in Eagle, it seems that there is a much more strict relation to the schematic, because the components are circularly grouped in relation to the schematic part names (while it seems that in KiCad this relation is completely missing).
Or, am I wrong?
Thank you.