7.99 is also called Nightly Development Builds, or just “Nightlies”.
https://www.kicad.org/ then choose your poison OS, I mean. 
7.99 (Nightlies) can be found under the current Stable Release.
BE AWARE: Kicad 7.99 is a development program that may have many bugs. It will become Kicad 8 around Feb.2024.
Anything made with 7.99 CAN NO LONGER BE OPENED WITH 7.0.x. (that includes 7.0.9 & 7.0.10)
Once you are in 7.99 with a project, there is no way back to 7.0.x. with that project.
an other nice option, available even for kicad v5
Both SnapEDA and PCB libraries each have over a million of footprints available. There are about a dozen of such sites, and you only need to pick one. I have been confused about how they get the data for some time, and it appears that the part manufacturers put effort and money into it make it easier to use their parts.
Also, Do you have some kind of overview of the footprints you need?
I am “old school” myself. I usually make my own footprints, and would have made a handful of them easily in the two days this thread is running. Making a footprint takes somewhere between 5 minutes (for something simple) and half an hour (for more complicated footprints).
It’s exactly this that I used last time (I had also contributed with some coffee improvement). See that you can install directly by Kicad without concern with manual download.
I try to use the base Kicad libraries, always that is puddle, and draw my specific part missing on official library. With the adjustment of plugin to export the assembly file I never experienced much problem.
Looks like I’m blind. Thanks for the help.
jmk pointed me in the right direction, I was able to download the 7.99 nightly, and the feature works as advertised, I’m definitely gonna use it when KiCad 8 comes out. For now though I think I’m gonna keep using KiCad 7 and use the easyeda2kicad script maui recommended. Thanks.
This is what I’m looking for, I downloaded the script, and it works like a charm. Thanks.
I understand wanting to make your own footprints, I am like that when it comes to 2D graphical design. But, I am new to this so wanted to make it easier for myself, although I’m probably going to need to make some footprints myself for the stuff that’s not on JLC or SnapEDA. I’m mostly going to use footprints for microcontroller boards and some SMD connectors, nothing to special, or hard to make.
in mouser electronics
ultra librarian
snapEDA
This kind of web sites u can download schematic,footprint and 3D model.
this all are very useful
Regarding,
dzid26
Dec 2023
I made a simple gui for downloading JLCPCB footprints and pasting directly to Kicad.
How do I “run” this python script?
I am on Windows 10 machine. I need beginners instructions.
I will be happy to make screen shots with which to help others.
Starting from the beginning as best I can remember.
I cloned the project here: GitHub - Springer-Electronics/JLC2KiCad_lib: JLC2KICAD_lib is a python script that generate a component library (schematic, footprint and 3D model ) for KiCad from the JLCPCB/easyEDA library.
into my KiCad 7 folder as per this screen shot.
I think did the " KicadModTree" in stall. Here is the screen shot which I admit confuses me.
I refresh the plug in but still do not see a new plugin for JLC2KiCAD
I also see what you have written here:
But some how I am missing something.
First confirm if KicadModTree is installed:
"c:/Program Files/KiCad/7.0/bin/python.exe" -m pip list
If not, maybe open your terminal as Administrator. And run:
"c:/Program Files/KiCad/7.0/bin/python.exe" -m pip install KicadModTree
Then Refresh plugins in Kicad.
If it still doesn’t work, open the Kicad console and refresh again and copy here any errors.
I rand this and got the following:
c:\Program Files\KiCad\7.0\bin>python -m pip list
Package Version
certifi 2023.5.7
charset-normalizer 3.1.0
idna 3.4
numpy 1.24.3
Pillow 9.5.0
pip 23.2.1
requests 2.31.0
setuptools 58.1.0
six 1.16.0
urllib3 2.0.2
wheel 0.40.0
[notice] A new release of pip is available: 23.2.1 → 24.0
[notice] To update, run: python.exe -m pip install --upgrade pip
c:\Program Files\KiCad\7.0\bin>
Time has passed… What am I trying to confirm again?
@ForrestErickson
I think you tried to confirm wether KicadModTree is installed.
Your output of "c:/Program Files/KiCad/7.0/bin/python.exe" -m pip list doesn’t show KicadModTree, so go ahead and run in cmd shell
"c:/Program Files/KiCad/7.0/bin/python.exe" -m pip install KicadModTree
Then run again
"c:/Program Files/KiCad/7.0/bin/python.exe" -m pip list
and check if KicadModTree is listed. The plugin should now be available.
is this plugin still working in KiCad 8.x ?
Is this still the best way to get LCSC symbol/footprint?
If yes, why is this not a prominently placed plugin in the plugin manager? it seems extremely useful.
It works with KiCad 8.x, although now you need to press Ctrl+V to actually paste the footprint.
I agree it is very useful to try parts and I myself use it all the time.
I find it very convenient to have an icon in the Kicad, rather than using an external tool.