How do I run the /JLC2KiCadLib please?

External Plugins
1

I am new to KiCad and wish to use JLCPCB as my fab. I have found a useful looking plug-in which enabless JLC’s Easy EDA Component libraries to be imported into KiCad.

I have successfull installed this using

pip install JLC2KiCadLib

The Readme gives a usage example

JLC2KiCadLib C1337258 C24112 -dir My_lib                       \
                             -model_dir My_model_dir           \
                             -footprint_lib My_footprint_lib   \
                             -symbol_lib_dir My_symbol_lib_dir \
                             -symbol_lib My_symbol_lib

which looks plain enough, but I have no idea how or from where I run this. Would anyone be able to help me with this please?
Thanks in advance.

2

You need to run this from the command line. So in Linux open a terminal and browse to the location of the file and run it, or in Windows open a command prompt.

3

Many thanks for your prompt reply. Could you say maore please? when you say run the file, which file do you mean, I am in Windows and If I try just running that script in cmd (either Windows or KiCad) I get ’ ```
JLC2KiCadLib not recognised as a … ’

4

When you installed the plugin with pip which pip was it? If you didn’t specify full path then it was the default one on system path. You need to find out where it is and then in that folder there will also be a Scripts folder and there should be JLC2KiCadLib.exe.
Or if you have some non-default install you need to find where it’s binaries live, pip should generate the binary for installed package somewhere nearby.

5

Many thanks qu!ck, I found the .exe, and clearly, it needs to be run from the cmd using the full path and with appropriate arguments. I can now sort that out so many thanks for the steer.
What I am slightly surprised at (as a KiCad newby) is that these “installed plugins” do not have a means of running them from within KiCad itself …

6

Yep - worked as billed - many thanks for the help. I did not realise this KiCad was quite so hair shirt but now I know, I am off and running!

Thanks again and best wishes,

7

There are a lot of plug ins that are well integrated within KiCad. These are available for installation from the project manager window and include such examples as InteractiveHTML BOM and KiBuzzard. Plug-ins have to be written in a particular way to work within KiCad in this way. There are plenty of other side projects that individuals have written that are less well integrated or not integrated at all. It’s up to the author to decide how a particular program works and developing even a basic gui interface adds a lot of extra work to a simple ‘run it once’ tool.

8

As John above said, it’s not shortcoming of KiCad, it’s the way that scripts author implemented it, it is not an actual plugin, just a script.
KiCad has a way to install and use plugins directly from kicad without touching terminal even once.

9

Indeed - no doubt this would be a rather niche plug-in, so much better to have its basic functionality than wait for a flashy GUI. Like any powerful software, a learning curve is ineviatble, so thanks again for a helping hand.

10

It is all working quite well and I discover that the component descriptors and BOM are automatically updated to include the JLC part number. (though it looks like the format of the BOM needs a tweak)

One thing which is baffling me - since the script drags-in a symbol, and a footprint and a 3D model, why is it that each has to be separately assigned? Surely, it would be easier to just asign a “component” and have all three automatically linked - am I missing something obvious here?

Best,

11

It is possible to have symbol, footprint and model prelinked, sounds like a good feature request to put on Github. Although author indicated in other issues that they don’t have much time to work on the script.

12

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