It is not possible to export an Eeschema on one site that is usable as an import to Eeschema in another site. Exporting only to the clipboard is somewhat too little to be useful.
Is there a procedure or documentation to show how (and what) to export an Eeschema that’s usable as an import to Kicad?
Welcome.
What do you mean by “site”? I understand it as a different machine or system or computer.
Do you want to start a design on one system and continue it on another?
Or do you want to reuse an old design as a beginning of a new one?
Your best bet for now is to zip up the project as an archive and unpack it at destination.
Future versions e.g. nightlies already provide ‘Save As…’ functionality.
Using sub sheets it is also an option, as each of the subsheets would be it own file, you cold copy it around.
LS,
I’ll try all of your suggestions.
But what I mean is that the export function of Eeschma is rudimantairy. It is not possible to import (in Kicad) an export from Eeschema, which would be the first thing you would expect as a (beginning) user.
Regards,Barry
But why do you want to export from eeschema and then import to eeschema? What you actually want to achieve? The “export” function isn’t probably meant for that, but there may be (and there are) other ways, if you just tell what you actually want to do. I already asked for some clarifications, so:
- What you mean by “site”?
- What you mean by “export” - what it should do in your opinion?
- Similarly what “import” means to you?
- What is your workflow which you want to use?
eeschema has no schematic export. It only has netlist export (and other unrelated exports). None of them include any graphical information required to recreate a schematic. (the netlist only holds the connectivity information meant for either simulation or layout programms)
LS,
• What you mean by “site”?
Site A: my work address. Site B: At home.
- What you mean by “export” - what it should do in your opinion?
Export to a uniform file format to be used elswhere or by another PCB-program. That’s where export and import are ment for, as I understand from other development programs (e.g 2D/3D-design programs use the STP- or DWG-format among other formats).
-Similarly what “import” means to you?
See export.
-What is your workflow which you want to use?
I develop a board at work and want to continue working at home and than (a few days later) continue at work again with the progress I made at home.
Gr,Barry
To share a project between two workplaces simply setup global libs the same at both computers and then place the project directory somewhere where you can access it from both ends (sharing personal global libs is done the same as with the project). Ideally with some sort of version control in between (git, svn, …) but the cloud (dropbox, google drive) are also an option.
Version control is here optional as it is unlikely that you will work at both ends at the same time (is more an issue if you and someone else share the same project)
LS,
Well as it seems to be no real export function: don’t name it that way.
Either rename it to what it does: copy to clipoard -or- enhance Eeschema to do a real export.
That’s why I tried to post this question at the developers.
Barry
“Export” has nothing to do with that. In most software I have used export and import mean handling 3rd party formats, other than their own native formats. That would be relevant only if you want to continue the project in some other software, but that’s not recommended if there’s no particular reason. Anyways KiCad can’t export projects to other EDA formats.
You can do it in the old way as with any other software - copy the whole project through a medium like USB memory stick. A more modern way is to use a file service if you have internet connection in both sites. Dropbox or google docs should do.
A possibly better (or worst) way is to use a version control sofware server, like github.com or gitlab.com, but then you have to learn to use that VCS software. The good side of this is that you get backup and version history at the same time. The downside is that it’s more complicated and you always must remember to save your changes to the central server (forget it and you can also forget continuing your work at the other site).
In any case the critical part is setting up the libraries to work similarly in both machines. That’s the most difficult part, too. Look through the FAQ section of this forum to get more information about that.
(P.S. Rene wrote almost all of this first, but I publish this anyways…)
I would not say difficult. It might be hard if the library organization is done badly but if the libs are well organized then it is quite simple to have two systems with the same lib setup. (For two systems i would manually add all required personal global libs with the library managers at both ends. No need for path variables or complex ways to automatically share the lib tables as that is more work than benefit for just two systems.)
Global libs definitely benefit from some sort of shared file system (cloud or version control) as it is quite a hassle to remember to always copy the changed libs when using a usb stick as the transport medium.
For local libs just ensure that they live within the project directory and you should be golden. (deviate from that and it will get more work and might require deeper understanding of kicad and the file systems at play.)
I said “the most difficult”, not “the difficult”, to be exact 
The thing is that there are a lot of people out there that paint a very negative picture about kicads library management. In most cases this is outdated info from version 4 and earlier. Or the misunderstanding that even the most simple setup needs to think about the advanced stuff like path variables (the average user only requires path variables for 3d models).
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