I’m trying to insert a symbol to my schematic (produced by Mouser), and even though this symbol loads fine in another Kicad project of mine and I have copied the .lib and .dcm files from this other project to my new project, Kicad compains with the following error:
Symbol library 'xlr-5pin-male' failed to load.
Expecting '(' in '/home/alex/Documents/kicad/3dPdModular/bus_boards/bus_board_main_single_74HC157/library/AC5MAH-AU-B.lib', line 1, offset 1.
I’ve opened both the .lib and .dcm files from both the new (not working) and old (working) projects in a text editor, and they look identical. I’ve quit and restarted Kicad but the error remains. Any ideas?
What is the origin of that file?
KiCad has not used *.lib files for quite a lot of versions. I think it’s from KiCad V5 or older, and that old file format does not use the S-expression format. Apparently KiCad attempts to read it as an S-Expression format.
Also, *.lib is pretty generic. Are you sure it is a KiCad library in the first place?
You can either set the library type in Preferences / Manage Symbol Libraries, and then the Library Format column. and/or work with the Migrate Libraries button in the lower right corner of that same dialog.
I was trying to reply eariler, but Kicad’s forum wouldn’t let me (a notification would pop up saying I’m typing too fast and should wait 49 minutes, or something like that).
I just changed the library format in Preferences → Manage Symbol Libraries → Project Specific Libraries from Kicad to Legacy and the symbol loaded! Sorry for the noise!
We had a rash of postings from spammers and had to get a little draconian with some settings on new users. This is the first I’ve heard this being a problem like this. The forum software does things (has features) we don’t even know about sometimes.
A better solution might be a minimum time as “new user” of, say 24 hours, so that multiple AI slop postings and reading a lot won’t get you promoted before a mod notices