Hello folks!
I am facing a very annoying issue with KiCAD 8 (actually with eeschema). Since now I’ve been working in KiCAD by myself only, and all of my projetcs are hosted on Git server.
From yesterday a collegue of mine, is working on the same project but using Ubuntu as desktop computer. I am using Debian 11 and KiCAD 8 is a flatpak application.
Since I’ve been using KiCAD from v3 and later, I usually export the netlist in eeschema, then using the import netlist function in pcbnew, as my workflow.
I know now I can use “update pcb from schematics” but I prefer using the import netlist because it can be checked first, and then update the PCB.
But the problem is: if I modify the schematic and update the netlist, inside the netlist .net file there are some information about my installation path, my tool version and such. When my collegue update the same schematics, those information changes between my computer/path/installation to his data.
There are some methods to avoid those changes in a multiple users collaborative projects?
In details the fields are:
under the design node there are source and tool section I think those can be avoided
under the libraries node there are some library nodes with a subnode called uri. I think those uri node should be avoided to obtain a clean netlist file with no links to my computer or his computer.
Are there some guidelines to obtain a valid Git / SVN / CVS way to share projects with KiCAD?
First, I don’t understand why you create netlist at all. The Update PCB from schematic is simply more robust. For example it excludes the possibility of by mistake loading an outdated netlist file. The netlist files are now mainly intended for interacting with external tools, or maybe to do some extra checking as you do (you have not elaboratred on what sort of checking you do on these files).
Netlists are intermediate files, and those should not be included in git at all. There are some examples of gitignore files especially made for kicad floating around on the 'net.
First of all, thank you for so quick answer,
but as I wrote before (I am sorry for my bad english as I am not an english native speaker) I am used to use the netlist format between schematics and pcb editor, because of my background, and because the IMPORT NETLIST from pcb editor can showme (using “load & test” button) to check if my netlist is good or whatever. For sure I need to re-export the netlist from schematic everytime I do some changes, but this is the common workflow since Kicad 3 and I prefer to remain to do so even in nowadays.
And, lastly, put the .net file into the .gitignore is simply a no-go to me.
Netlist exporting is still scriptable in v9. I assume the current script system will be replaced with the new API based system when the new API will be available for eeschema. But it should be possible to script a netlist exporter which has the information you need without the information you don’t want. You can even make it easier to read and check. Then, after checking it, you can use the “Update PCB from Schematic” function. Or maybe it can be made to work with the old workflow so that the local settings aren’t changed.
But I would rather recommend getting used to the new workflow. If you want to convince us, you have to argue your needs and use cases in more detail. For example, why “put the .net file into the .gitignore is simply a no-go”.
It’s rather simple. Try to imagine all projects I have already done, needs to be updated so far, because another user, using another Operating System and tools (flatpak vs Ubuntu’s .deb package) everytime open or change something in the schematic, the resulting netlist is changed even in the source and tool nodes). No mention about the real changes (i.e. some symbol, value or netlist) that are good to me, but the design /design node and a little single row of the uri subnode in the libraries node.
It’s very annoying to me, even just to follow the differences between each commit.
Another way should be a post creation script to be launched when the Export Netlist is done in the Schematic Editor. In that way the Import NetList in PCB Editor, it will work flawlessly and no extra garbage in the NetList will be present. Is there a way to trigger something in eeschema to launch an extra script (Python?) as the netlist is an XML-style file?