How do you copy/paste between schematics of different projects?

I the older kicads you could do that by selecting a block, then right click “save block”, then open the schematic you want to copy to and, finally, click the paste icon.

I kicad 4.0.3+e1-6302 this process flow is broken because (for a reason that is unclear to me) it has become impossible to open multiple schematics. In order to open the schematic you wish to copy to, you have to close the current project and open the new one and the clip board gets flushed during this operation.

Any ideas?

You need to start EEschema as stand alone tool from the /bin folder and then do what you did before.

C:\Program Files\KiCad\bin

Hello, thank you. That works. On linux the path is /usr/bin/eeschema.

I’m using the “Append Schematic sheet” function from the File menu in Eeschema:

  1. Move your current schematic outside the page.
  2. Append the schematic sheet you want to copy from.
  3. Remove what you don’t need and leave the required part.
  4. Move your original schematic back in place.
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Standalone tools seem to be deprecated in KiCad, so I wonder for how long this will be possible

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Sir, pl. explain in more & clear steps, -how to copy from one schematic, and then paste it into another new one.
U hv given steps as below:-

  1. Move your current schematic outside the page. - (I have a new & blank schematic - that is my current blank page)

  2. Append the schematic sheet you want to copy from. - (I want to copy all, from an “old schematic” to this “new one” above)

  3. Remove what you don’t need and leave the required part. - (I don’t need to remove, but need to copy the whole thing)

  4. Move your original schematic back in place. - (…???..I have a blank new schematic - so what to move back in place??? - the old one or the new one?)

Pl. explain in more steps. I am new to KiCad, (& I hv been using Eagle till now) -Thanx.

Sir, I appreciate ur great advanced knowledge in KICAd. But ur terms such as:.“Standalone tools” & “seem to be deprecated” – these are complicated terms & they r “Greek” to us - (new in KiCad).

Pl. write at least 5 to 10 lines (in steps), if u ALSO want us to understand what U really mean to say. Pl. don’t talk & discuss in short, (& in just “one line” sentences), - & in such mysterious technical terms, which only the other, one or two veterans understand in this thread.

I tried what U advised, but still, I could not “copy block” etc., a schematic from an old project into a NEW blank schematic. (i.e. I could not make a new second copy, of an old schematic, so that I could modify the new one, & let the old one remains as it is).

Can U pl. help? If this is not possible in KiCad, then just tell me that. So that I won’t waste any more time in KiCad, and will go back to that Light Eagle - even though that is another headache,…- it gives U a “sharp abuse”, every time U step out of it’s small boundary.

if you start EEschema from the KiCAD window, it is not stand-alone and will have a different set of features.
If you go to the KiCAD program folder and start the EEschema.exe (or whatever it is called in your OS environment) EEschema is stand-alone and has a different feature set (can open .sch files directly - there is a button for that then there).

@davidsrsb means, that some stand-alone features will vanish in the future, but that is not now.

@explore, you seem - sorry - a bit impatient and short on words. u=You, Pl=please and hv=have is not very easy to read to tell you the least. There also is no need to use three question marks in a row to state a question, one will do, really.
And asking someone to not keep it short, while you use messenger shorting for whole words is rather funny.

So, here is your step-by-step, follow-me-to-the-dot-instruction-for-dummies:

  1. (note *) at bottom) start EEschema from it’s program folder (windows: C:\Program Files\KiCad\bin) - not via KiCAD!

  2. load the schematic A you want the schematic B copied into (= B will be copied into A)

  3. move anything in schematic A that could be located in the same place as anything in schematic B (= make what people call a blank page, by moving schematic A content as far out as possible)

  4. hit this button:

  5. search and select the schematic B in the folder dialog that comes up

  6. delete, move, arrange components from schematic B (which are now in schematic A) to your liking

  7. move schematic A content back to where it was (= revert point 3 above)

PS: if your schamtic A is empty and essentially a new project, you can just copy the schematic file on the harddrive from project B to project A and rename it to be the projects A main schematic (or hierarchical sheet). No need for the append maneuvers.

PPS: if you understood that principle in above PS: you could even - temporarily - create a hierarchical sheet in project A, copy the sheet of B to project A on the harddrive, use the Copy/Save Block command and copy within the project only what you want.

PPPS: in case you haven’t noticed - the whole dilemma is with KiCAD/EEschema not being able to use the content of Save Block/Copy Block between different sessions of EEschema (session = running instance of EEschema, instance = copy in memory of your computer).

I hope I didn’t confuse you too much there. :nerd:

PPPPS: this is the copy/save block operation I’m talking about (select a couple of things in EEschema with your mouse and then hit the right mouse button for the context menu)

*) 100 points if you read until here.
If you start EEschema from KiCAD the Append Schematic button will also be there - no need to start it stand alone.

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