Footprints repeatedly disappear from specific project

[jtw_11]

Hi all,

First post on these forums, I switched from EAGLE to KiCAD only a few months ago now - and have completed several boards which have been manufactured using KiCAD so far, and have been remarkably impressed how far it’s come in the last few years.

I’ve got a bit of an odd project specific problem at the moment…

Every time I restart KiCAD, in the ‘Assign PCB footprints to schematic symbols’ window, all the footprints for all the system libraries are empty. Even if I turn off ALL the filters, the footprints all appear but without names such as “0:3”, “0:4”.

If I go into Preference --> Manage Footprint Libraries, remove all the system libraries and add them back in, they all appear again just fine. Note the actual PCB design in unaffected during this, and any already assigned footprints are okay.

This is specific to one project in particular…

What should I be looking for?

EDIT - I should add, when re-adding the footprint libraries in, KiCAD often freezes and crashes completely. Kicad (5.1.5)-3, running on Windows 10.

[iabarry]

Keying in on

@jtw_11

all the footprints for all the system libraries are empty.

It seems the footprint libs are not installed properly. Did you let the installer putthem in the default location?

Did you previously have kicad v4 installed on your pc?

Try searching here for lib installation issues.

[iabarry]

On the KiCad main window, goto: Preferences --> Manage Footprint Libs --> select Global Libs

Post a screen shot. Here is what mine shows:

Check the PATHs

[jtw_11]

Hi both, thanks for the replies

I didn’t previously have v4, this was a clean install. The libraries are all present and correct, in the default locations. When I remove them from the footprint libraries window, and add them back in (using all the default paths, all the footprints become visible again.

Next time I open KiCAD, they’re all gone again - even though the footprint libraries window shows them all.

Note also this is specific to one project, it doesn’t happen with other projects where it behaves just fine.

The only thing I can think is different, is this project started from an EAGLE import, rather than from anew.

[eelik]

Can you share the project here?

[jtw_11]

Not the whole project unfortunately, is there a configuration file or something however that would contain information/relevant information?

[davidsrsb]

Can you try making a copy and deleting much of the content, so that it can be shared?