Hi everyone,
I am using KiCad version 5.1.4-1 with German GUI.
During schematic entry, I want to add the footprint of a symbol in symbol properties table. To this effect I have proceeded as follows:
Select a symbol from KiCad lib, 2. Right click “Symbol” and select “Properties”, 3. Select “Edit properties” , 4. Click: footprint “Visible”, 5. Click in the “Value” coloumn of “footprint”. 6. Double click on the “library books” that appear which appear on the right-hand side. The footprint library opens and one can brouse through it to select the desired footprint. So far so good.
Unfortunately though, I can’t copyand paste the footprint number or click on the same to get it entered (automatically) in the Symbol properties table mentioned above.
I can of course note it down and on a piece of paper and enter it manully in the tabel. But this is very error prone and not so user friendly.
I have seen John’s Basement KiCad tutorial (Part 2) where he is able to click the footprint info into symbol properties table. He is also using KiCad version 5. The main difference I can see is that he is using the English version GUI whereas I am using the German GUI.
But this can hardly explain what I am experiencing… or??
Please help me identifyig where am I making a mistake?
Latest stable release is 5.1.5 and many things proceed with the talented group of developers and older videos may be obsolete.
Did you try cvpcb? You will find in schematic editor main menue German 5.1.4 Werkzeuge->BauteilfootprintZuweisen. A 3 column table will open (after a while) where you can assign the footprints very comfortable.
Hmm, double click on the desired footprint line works for me and always has. But you should paste full version number of your Kicad software, including the platform. Maybe your windows manager is intercepting double clicks?
I just noticed you are editing the symbol properties in the library, not your schematic. You may not have modify access to the library, depending on the library and the platform. On Linux platforms, the “system” libraries are shared and read-only for users. One should not modify “system” libraries as an update can wipe out your changes. If it’s a personal library or a shared group library, make sure your account has write permission on it.
Sure it isn’t sufficient to modify the footprint of the instance(s) in your schematic? You do this by editing the symbol or Tools > Edit Symbol Fields.
Even when the year 2020 is coming, it’s still better to give the whole version information from Help->About. This time the OS could have been the critical part. Many differences in the UI are due to the underlying UI library which behaves differently on different plaftorms. Not necessarily, but may be. (OK, @kenyapcomau said this already but it’s worth repeating.)
For me selecting that text works OK, either by doing click+drag or by double click. If it doesn’t work it’s a bug. It shouldn’t deped on the library (even the read-only status).
Thanks to all of you for your prompt response to my problem.
Yes, I realise that besides the KiCad version number I should have also added the OS related info. Sorry for that. Here is the complete info:
Application: Eeschema
Version: (5.1.4)-1, release build
Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.0.4
libcurl/7.61.1 OpenSSL/1.1.1 (WinSSL) zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.6 libidn2/2.0.5 libpsl/0.20.2 (+libidn2/2.0.5) nghttp2/1.34.0
Platform: Windows 8 (build 9200), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW
Build Info:
wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8)
Boost: 1.68.0
OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.9.1
Curl: 7.61.1
Compiler: GCC 8.2.0 with C++ ABI 1013
But I wish to report the good news.
With janvi’s tip to look into schematic editor tools (Werkzeuge) I could solve the issue. I can now add the symbol footprint by double klick in the footprint field. That is - as Janvi mentioned really a comfortable way to do it. Thanks for the valuable tip.
The only thing I wish to mention is that it is not the item “Werkzeuge --> Bauteilefootprint zuweisen” but
“Wekzeuge–> Bauteil Felderzuweisen” instead.
I am not sure if it is a header description error in tools (Werkzeuge) drop-down menue or not but the “Wekkzeuge --> Bauteilefootprint zuweisen” deals with “Annotation des Schatlplans” (circuit annotation) and not with footprint issue. I just wanted to mention that but propbaly experts have already taken care of that in the new (5.1.5) release.
As a general tip: switch kicad to english (main window -> preferences -> language)
This makes your life a lot easier as even languages like german are quite badly translated (Bauteil instead of symbol is a good example of a very bad translation)
Also nearly all resources on the web are referencing the english version of kicad. Communication with other users will also be a lot easier if both are used to the english version (or the same language but well you will find more users with english than any other language)
I would suggest you to install 5.1.5.
As I know more than 100 bugs (bigger or smaller) were reported by community for 5.1.4 and fixed by developers in 5.1.5.
@Rene_Poschl the best thing of Kicad is the open source for what we are able to improve the translations. (Even my patch for one word was successful after 3 trials failed for diffrent reasons). Some improvements were already done in the master version and other things seems to suffer from semi automatic translations not regarding the context(s) of its use. “Bauteilefootprint” is one of the non existing German words but everybody knows what it is so why not use if its working? Another suggestion would be “Gehäuse”. Compare the old Siemens instruction manuals where reset translates to “Wiederanlauf” its no benefit to translate everything. Even native Germans dont understand such text. @Starter99 Feld zuweisen is possibly a property why Feld seems wrong translation for me. Nevertheless I wonder about Kicads philosophy for intuitive use at this matter. A unique dialog to display and edit a list with all kind of properties assigned to objects in schematic and pcb by introduction of a context menue would help. Such dialog would be highly reusable and could handle many frequently used things like color, value, reference of even user introduced properties like CompanyStockNumber in a simple table.