Environmental Path Variable not being used in Configure Symbol Library

[JohnRob]

Version: (5.99.0-1622-gbc24d8e95), release build see eof for complete info on version

For my personal libraries I have a specific folder (Win10). Its structure mimics that of the official library structure.

When I manage my footprint library, the footprint library path setup in the configuration is shown in the “Path Substitution”, When I try to do the same with symbols the configured path is not show in “path substitution”. table

I’ve tried several alternative entries but no luck.

Any suggestions?

Application: KiCad
Version: (5.99.0-1622-gbc24d8e95), release build
Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.0.4
libcurl/7.66.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1d (Schannel) zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.7 libidn2/2.2.0 libpsl/0.21.0 (+libidn2/2.1.1) nghttp2/1.39.2
Platform: Windows 8 (build 9200), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW
Build Info:
Build date: May 10 2020 21:00:10
wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8)
Boost: 1.71.0
OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.9.1
Curl: 7.66.0
Compiler: GCC 9.2.0 with C++ ABI 1013

Build settings:
KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=OFF
KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=OFF
KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON
KICAD_USE_OCE=ON
KICAD_USE_OCC=OFF
KICAD_SPICE=ON

[eelik]

That may feel weird, but that’s how it works. KiCad adds a variable to the list only if it first has been used at least once in the library tables.

The list doesn’t have any functional purpose anyways, it’s just “for your information” so that you can see where the variable used in the table points to.

[JohnRob]

Thanks. I can’t be sure now but when I setup the same links in the footprints table, when I browsed to the appropriate location and clicked on the .pretty file, Kicad entered the path using the “Path Substitution” path prefix. Perhaps not I can’t remember enough detail to be sure.

[eelik]

Yes, if you first have a path variable defined and then add a new library to the library table, KiCad substitutes the matching part of the library path. But if you have first added the libraries and then the path variable, KiCad doesn’t automatically do substitution in the paths.