Hyperlink to external file

Muz · October 17, 2024, 3:07pm

Hello,

I have a file in a subfolder of the project location and I wanna create a link from a text field within Kicad.
I tried file://Folder/File.txt, the textfile is then clickable but it does not open the file. I didn’t find any documetation regarding this topic.
How do I create hyperlinks to files relative to the project folder?

Application: KiCad Schematic Editor x86_64 on x86_64

Version: 8.0.5-1.fc40, release build

Libraries:
	wxWidgets 3.2.4
	FreeType 2.13.2
	HarfBuzz 8.5.0
	FontConfig 2.15.0
	libcurl/8.6.0 OpenSSL/3.2.2 zlib/1.3.1.zlib-ng libidn2/2.3.7 nghttp2/1.59.0

Platform: Fedora Linux 40 (Workstation Edition), 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK, X11, gnome, wayland
OpenGL: Mesa, NV126, 4.3 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 24.1.7

Build Info:
	Date: Sep  6 2024 00:00:00
	wxWidgets: 3.2.4 (wchar_t,wx containers) GTK+ 3.24
	Boost: 1.83.0
	OCC: 7.6.3
	Curl: 8.6.0
	ngspice: 43
	Compiler: GCC 14.2.1 with C++ ABI 1019

Build settings:

retiredfeline · October 17, 2024, 3:22pm

How about file://${KIPRJMOD}/File.txt?

Muz · October 17, 2024, 3:59pm

Perhabs does also not work

paulvdh · October 17, 2024, 4:15pm

In the past I have experimented a bit with abusing the datasheet link in a schematic to link to other things such as JPG’s, local PDF files and even other KiCad projects, and this seemed to work quite well.

When you enter a text string into a text field, it is just text. If you want to add a link, then you have this as an option at the bottom of the text field.

paulvdh · October 17, 2024, 4:38pm

After some more experimenting, there do seem to be problems here.

I added a generic Q_NPN_BCE transistor (without datasheet link) to a project, and added a link to datasheet relative to the project, and that works:

But I can’t get this link working with the link field in a text box:

I get the error:

When I replace the link with an absolute path it does work:

I am not sure whether I’m using the syntax wrong, or if it’s a bug. Hopefully someone else can elaborate here.

Muz · October 17, 2024, 5:43pm

Thanks for testing. I did it also with this link option. But I don’t get the error message you get.

An url to a website will be opened in the browser, but not a file path

retiredfeline · October 17, 2024, 9:26pm

There has been some previous discussion of this. For the datasheet field, the file:// scheme should work, but for other fields, the results may vary.

Muz · December 17, 2024, 8:57am

I tried it with the newest version under windows and there it works.

file://C:\\<absolute path>\issues_R3.txt

When clicking on the textlabel it opens the texteditor with the file.

Application: KiCad Schematic Editor x64 on x64

Version: 8.99.0-3407-g6a48e2c35a, release build

Libraries:
	wxWidgets 3.2.6
	FreeType 2.13.3
	HarfBuzz 10.0.1
	FontConfig 2.15.0
	libcurl/8.10.1-DEV Schannel zlib/1.3.1

Platform: Windows 11 (build 22621), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW
OpenGL: Intel, Intel(R) Iris(R) Xe Graphics, 4.6.0 - Build 31.0.101.3889

Build Info:
	Date: Dec 16 2024 07:06:14
	wxWidgets: 3.2.6 (wchar_t,wx containers)
	Boost: 1.86.0
	OCC: 7.8.1
	Curl: 8.10.1-DEV
	ngspice: 43
	Compiler: Visual C++ 1939 without C++ ABI
	KICAD_IPC_API=ON

Locale: 
	Lang: en_US
	Enc: UTF-8
	Num: 1,234.5
	Encoded кΩ丈: D0BACEA9E4B888 (sys), D0BACEA9E4B888 (utf8)