Something is corrupted, don’t know if it’s Kicad or the project. Symptoms:
Measurement_points library has disappeared- no entries in cvpcb, so I can’t swap a footprint
Occasional ‘zipfile error’ when I open cvpcb. I think it only happens first run after reboot
When I try to swap footprints the result screen last letters are ‘no’ indicating failure I think because nothing changes.
program hung and crashed yesterday. Can I re-install without losing libraries? I know this is explained somewhere but library management seems a little opaque
First thing to try is reload library, how can I do that, from Github? Why should I need to, isn’t that done on startup? (I think that’s why it takes 2 minutes to open cvpcb)
When I try to swap footprints from a square pad to a round through hole, here’s the result:
Hello! You have most of the answers figured out already, you just missed on putting the pieces together to solve the riddle.
The GitHub library “Measurement_Points” is broken/empty/INVALID. I’ve never seen this before, so I don’t know what will end up happening with that GitHub library.
What I suggest, is that you create your own footprint, and save it to your custom library in a custom location.
The measurement point lib is a duplication of connectors test points lib. (It has been deprecated. I’m not sure why the footprints in there have been deleted.) I would suggest you look in the later.
Sprig, great suggestion! (I already did it!!) I don’t think it completely worked, may try a few magic reboots-restarts. Also it appears that the library I was using was deprecated, perhaps recently since it was there when I installed Kicad a few months ago. I still think something is corrupted in my poor old tired XP. May try Kicad re-install. If the design file is corrupt it will be a disaster since many hours went into the design, and I’m not sure if there is a ‘file clean’ recovery process for bad design files. I do have backups but there would still be a lot of rework, many recent fixes.
Are you sure using XP is a good idea? You do not get security updates anymore. (Never use such a machine for online banking or for data that is actually of any importance.)
Other news: @SchrodingersGat reverted the removal of the footprints from the deprecated lib. The lib is still marked as deprecated. (Will not be listed for anyone who wants to add it via the footprint library wizard)
Reverting the removal means there is no change for everyone who already has this lib in their fp-lib-table. (other than that the lib will not be updated any more from now on)
You may be wondering why I just didn’t make a new footprint- I am too! In retrospect it would have been a lot easier. After all, a test point is about the simplest footprint there is.
I did download the connectors_measurement points library, import it into local lib, and swap footprints on the board after a lot of fooling around. On the plus side this has been a good learning experience. I really need to read the library management tutorial! Sorry if this has caused unnecessary work for the library gurus.
It takes a little while to get comfortable with creating your own. Once I got to that point, I also realized that I could make them however I wanted; I did not have to comply with the KLC.
Now, I’ll look look in the KiCad libraries first thing for certain. But if I don’t find exactly what I want, I’ll find the datasheet and open the footprint editor without hesitation.
