All of a sudden I’m getting this error when I open CVPCB:
IO_ERROR: option ‘allow_pretty_writing_to_this_dir’ for Github library ‘https://github.com/KiCad/Air_Coils_SML_NEOSID.pretty’ must point to a writable directory ending with ‘.pretty’. from C:/Jenkins/workspace/windows-kicad-msys2-stable/src/kicad-4.0/pcbnew/github/github_plugin.cpp : cacheLib() : line 420
You can’t write to github with KiCAD.
Set up local copies of the github libs and use those for modification… and be aware that any reload from there will wipe out any local changes you have made.
There is a second solution @Joan_Sparky, but for those who has a stable and wideband Internet connection. Setup Copy On Write option (see Pcbnew manual, section 2.4.6) for GitHub libraries. This way any modification you made will be stored locally in COW and will take precedence, so there is no chance to wipe out any changes, even if the GitHub footprints will be newer than those in COW.
The main problem here is the wrong entry in Library Table. @acidblue probably trying to set-up COW but has invalid path in allow_pretty_writing_to_this_dir or this location is write protected by OS, or the destination folder doesn’t exist. COW didn’t automatically create this folder, it must be created by the user first.
BTW: KiCad in Windows doesn’t support Virtual Store mechanism from recent editions (Vista, 7, 8, 10) so installing it in Program Files isn’t a good option for these OSes. I’ve always install KiCad in the root folder of system disk and many problems like that have gone. IMO the Windows packaging guys should think about the change of default destination folder. Otherwise such problems will be constantly repeated.
AHA! There was an COW entry on the “/Air_Coils_SML_NEOSID.pretty” in the Footprints Library Manager.
I removed it and all is well again.