HELP! Libraries are not recognized (schematic symbols)

[Rene_Poschl]

@Just_Me

Surely i don’t have to change them one by one, longhand?

That depends how they are added. The libs that are shipped with kicad use environment variables so these are easy to change by changing these variables.

If your personal libs do not use variables then yes you will need to change their path manually (the lib table is a simple text file so you can change it outside of kicad by use of a text editor)

---

@Just_Me

Reading on it says i can add libraries (but do i want to add them? I just want to set the directory location where i will put them/create them…?)

At the very beginning of the linked article:

@Rene_Poschl

KiCad does not automatically detect libraries! There is no special library location (you might still care about good file organization). The path (variable) setup found in the preferences menu is for making your setup portable not to load a full directory of libraries.

Every library that should be available must be added to so called library tables which are managed with library managers. These are found in the preferences menu of all KiCad subprogramms (preference → Manage symbol/footprint libraries.)

@Just_Me

Anyway, to do this it says to use the library manager. I cannot find a “library manager” under any of the menus. what is the library manager? How do i find it? And How does it relate to the manage symbol [footprint] libraries dialog that i currently have open?

Again answered in the article

@Rene_Poschl

The library managers are found in the preference menus of all KiCad sub programs and in the KiCad main window. (Menu entries are “Manage footprint libraries” and “Manage symbol libraries”. Only the main window shows both options. Sub programs show only the one relevant for them.)