Copying new symbols from one project to another?

[albireo13]

Hi,
I created a bunch of new parts to my symbol library in one project.
Now I started a design in another project. How do I copy my new, custom parts into the new project library? This is KiCad 6.0.

Thx

[paulvdh]

The KiCad Project Manager / Preferences / Manage Symbol Libraries … dialog should be quite self explanatory. It’s got a tab page for the global libraries (which are usable in all projects), and a tab page for project specific libraries, which are project specific

For the “Project specific” libraries, the ${KIPRJMOD} variable always points to the root of the currently active project and this can be used for relative path names.

[albireo13]

OK, found that. After I enter my old project, I see my new parts library under the Project Specific Libraries tab.
Is there a way I can copy that into the Global Libraries?
I don’t want to mess things up.

Thx

[paulvdh]

Sure, just click on the + sign in the lower left corner and enter a library name and a path.

Also:
I do recommend to create a separate directory for your own libraries, and use that only for libraries.

[jmk]

Hi @albireo13
You may have realized project libraries can be a little limiting. As Paul hints, the best way to save created symbols and footprints is to create personal global libraries and save your symbols and footprints in these.
To do that, just create the global libraries and then either “copy/paste” or “save as” the symbols & footprints and 3Ds in your project libraries to your new global libraries. Once in the global libraries, they can be then used in any project, and, after being used, can also be saved in the appropriate project libraries.

A couple of hints with global libraries:
Use your OS to create folders for personal libraries for symbols, footprints & 3D models in which to place your drawings.
Global libraries are listed in numeric followed by alphabetic sequence, and the place your personal global libraries reside in the long list of kicad global libraries is determined by the “nickname”, so , if you wish to keep your libraries at the top of the list, prefix the nickname with a number lower than 4 or at the bottom of the list, use a z.
Cheers, Jan