External Plugins... Vs Scripting Console - KiCAD 5.0

External Plugins
1

I have a small script I would like to run from within Pcbnew and so I am after some clarification on the External Plugin option for KiCAD on Windows 10.

On Windows 10, I have KiCAD 5.0 stable release. In there I see the “Tools->Scripting Console”. There is no “Tools->External Plugins…” option as described in the documentation. I can run the script from the “Scripting Console” but I was wondering if there would be a way to enable the “External Plugins…” option in the stable release?

On a Ubuntu virtual environment, I upgraded the KiCAD install with “apt-get” and now I have the nightly build there. On that install, I can see the “External Plugins…”. I followed thenote on Pcbnew plugins to register my script as an External Plugin and the script works fine.

Though I have a workaround of using the “Scripting Console” it would be nice if I could see this under the “External Plugins…” option.

Windows 10:
Application: kicad
Version: (5.0.0), release build
Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.0.3
libcurl/7.54.1 OpenSSL/1.0.2l zlib/1.2.11 libssh2/1.8.0 nghttp2/1.23.1 librtmp/2.3
Platform: Windows 8 (build 9200), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW
Build Info:
wxWidgets: 3.0.3 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8)
Boost: 1.60.0
OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.8.0
Curl: 7.54.1
Compiler: GCC 7.1.0 with C++ ABI 1011
Build settings:
USE_WX_GRAPHICS_CONTEXT=OFF
USE_WX_OVERLAY=OFF
KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON**
KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=OFF
BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON
KICAD_USE_OCE=ON
KICAD_USE_OCC=OFF
KICAD_SPICE=ON

2

There was a compiler flag missing from on the build system for windows releases. I am not sure if they fixed it for 5.0.0 or if you would need to wait for 5.0.1

Ok there is a 5.0.0 build available in the testing downloads. It might be activated in 5.0.1 (I don’t quite understand the issue wayne points out. The script creators are responsible for bugs in their scripts. At least this is how every other software with a scripting interface handles it. Admittedly such a low level data access is not the norm.)

https://www.mail-archive.com/kicad-developers@lists.launchpad.net/msg31470.html

3

Thanks @Rene_Poschl, As I say, I have a workaround but was just curious about the availability of the menu option. The scripting console was great for testing so I hope that it hangs around as well.

4

There is a 5.0.0 build for windows availabla at http://downloads.kicad.org/windows/testing/kicad-5.0.0-x86_64.exe 5 (28-Jul-2018 17:34)

5

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.