Since my last start of the program I am unable to assign footprints. Opening ‘Assign PCB footprints to schematic symbols’ results in Errors were encountered loading footprints.
I checked the location of the libraries defined in $KISYSMOD and the location exists on my harddrive. I noticed that the Library paths and the folder names in the modules do not match any more.
How can the footprint files change (either in Kicad or on the disc)? I was not notified about an update, or changes (autoupdate?).
Can I replace the ‘new’ footprint list to Kicad? Older projects also have the same problem and need to be changed as well.
How can I prevent such invasive changes in the future?
Windoze puts the slashes the wrong way around and has other quircks.
What is that “roaming” thing in the path, is that normal in windows? With me it’s:
I tink that if you delete the config files in your user path, then KiCad genereates new ones from a template, just as the first time ever you run KiCad on your system. I’m not sure if that would help for you though.
Full version info is in: KiCad -> Help -> About -> [Copy Version Info] -> [OK]
On my box it looks like:
Application: KiCad
Version: 5.1.5+dfsg1-2~bpo10+1, release build
Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.0.4
libcurl/7.64.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1d zlib/1.2.11 libidn2/2.0.5 libpsl/0.20.2 (+libidn2/2.0.5) libssh2/1.8.0 nghttp2/1.36.0 librtmp/2.3
Platform: Linux 4.19.0-6-amd64 x86_64, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK
Build Info:
wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8) GTK+ 3.24
Boost: 1.67.0
OpenCASCADE Technology: 7.3.0
Curl: 7.64.0
Compiler: GCC 8.3.0 with C++ ABI 1013
Where do you see multiple names? I had the issue from 4 to 5 only on my Linux machine (my mistake), but the Windows installation should have been a clean install of 5.1.4
But how did it work until now? Something must have change
EDIT:
Application: KiCad
Version: (5.1.4)-1, release build
Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.0.4
libcurl/7.61.1 OpenSSL/1.1.1 (WinSSL) zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.6 libidn2/2.0.5 libpsl/0.20.2 (+libidn2/2.0.5) nghttp2/1.34.0
Platform: Windows 8 (build 9200), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW
Build Info:
wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8)
Boost: 1.68.0
OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.9.1
Curl: 7.61.1
Compiler: GCC 8.2.0 with C++ ABI 1013
Build settings:
USE_WX_GRAPHICS_CONTEXT=OFF
USE_WX_OVERLAY=OFF
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
I removed the global libraries and just added the again. So far the footprints already assigned have the same reference in the ‘new’ library (maybe the same nickname, or the elementname can be found).
I am still suspicious on what changed on my system/ Kicad without me doing anything. As always my first suspect is Win10, but I am unable to find something in the forum.
In one way or another that fp-lib-table file is from KiCad v4. Either it’s not a fresh install after all - you tried it years ago, uninstalled and forgot? - or have copied the file there or your home folder is a shared folder, or something like that.
If the same KiCad worked previously, you may have had
old libraries and old fp-lib-table but the libraries were updated, or
new libraries and new fp-lib-table but the fp-lib-table was changed.
Windows can’t create an fp-lib-table. KiCad isn’t updated automatically. The user/administrator must have done something. However, KiCad’s library system isn’t ideal in this respect. Quite many people have problems with it.
We work from a ssh-server with versioning. So often we just update projects directly from the server. So when a new part is included it must be in a specific library folder.
Since the ‘fp-lib-table’ is a temporary(?), local file I still do not understand how the Global file path of the footprint manager (local installation of Kicad) can differ from the folders of the harddisk.
Users are usually not allowed to update, change, do anything critical. Since it happened only on the Win10 machines and I was able to resolve it removing/ adding the global filepaths of the footprints, I file the problem on my long list of Win10 cons
The global fp-lib-table is in the user’s home folder’s appdata folder, under KiCad settings. Initially it’s copied from the KiCad installation (by default) and reflects the corresponding KiCad official libraries. But it can be changed apart from the libraries, and the libraries can be changed apart from the fp-lib-table.
You may have missed the fact that what you see under Global Libraries (and Project Specific, too) is the contents of the fp-lib-table file, not the contents of any library. You can navigate to that fp-lib-table file and open it with a text editor and even edit it manually. Its purpose is to point to existing libraries, but whoever or whatever edits that file, decides what’s in there.
${KISYSMOD} is replaced with the contents of that variable which is also defined in the user settings. Its purpose is to enable relocating the libraries without rewriting the fp-lib-table file.
).
