Importing Eagle footprint library?

Layout Footprints
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I hereby certify that I am not simply asking someone else to design a footprint for me.

This is an auto-generated message that is in place on the “footprints” section of the KiCad.info forum. If I remove it and ask for a footprint to be designed anyway, I understand that I will be subject to forum members telling me to go design my own footprint or referring me to a 3rd party footprint site.

I downloaded Eagle files from TI’s Webench tool.
After importing the schematic file, and juggling other files around trying to figure this out, I’m left with components in the schematic that are connected to footprints that don’t exist.
So now I’m trying to fix that by adding the Eagle footprint library in the footprint editor, but it won’t let me add the .xml file.
Is there another way to do this?

Thank you

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Hallo,
leider habe ich auch keine guten Erfahrungen beim Import von Eagle-Dateien in KICAD gemacht. Bei einfachen Bauteilen wie RCL geht es noch ganz gut, aber bei komplexeren Bauteilen werden die Fehler immer mehr. Der DRC und ERC meldet immer mehr Fehler. Vielleicht lag es an meiner älteren Eagle Professional Edition Version 6.5.0 für Windows.
Ich habe es dann aufgegeben, Ich lasse die Projekte die ich mit Eagle erstellt habe im Eagle-Archiv und alle neuen Projekte erstelle ich mit KICAD. Das spart Zeit und schont die Nerven ! :+1:

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Google translation for @BerndHF , to save others the effort: :slightly_smiling_face:

Hello,
Unfortunately, I have not had good experiences importing Eagle files into KICAD either. With simple components like RCL it is still quite good, but with more complex components the errors are increasing. The DRC and ERC are reporting more and more errors. Maybe it was because of my older Eagle Professional Edition version 6.5.0 for Windows.
I then gave up, I leave the projects I created with Eagle in the Eagle archive and I create all new projects with KICAD. This saves time and is easy on the nerves!

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Add a library and convert it to kicad format

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To expand on @m852 's comment:

You need to create a personal library into which you convert and place the Eagle library. To create a personal library see here or the FAQ (in blue at top of this page)

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Thank you, all.
I’ve come to the conclusion I’ll need to import the downloaded project from TI into a free version of Eagle in order to export a “.lbr” file which can be converted to a KiCad “.kicad_mod” file using a tool like this: GitHub - lachlanA/eagle-to-kicad-libs: Convert from Eagle libs to KiCad lib and modules

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Kicad6 already has its own converter

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I’ve managed to import the Eagle schematic, but haven’t found a library converter yet.
Is this in the footprint editor?

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This is in the Seat and Symbol Manager setup menu. Review the documentation kicad will have fewer questions

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Why do you want those eagle libraries in KiCad in the first place?
KiCad can import both eagle schematics and PCB’s, so why do you need the library?

I’ve dabbled a bit with import of eagle projects, and it’s good enough to get the important information (Schematic, PCB footprint locations and tracks) from eagle to KiCad, but I do have a tendency to replace schematic symbols and footprints with versions native to KiCad in a “cleanup pass”.

I have also never used that webench thing. A quick look around the 'net suggests that it’s export to eagle is already quite flawed, so you would probably need a cleanup after two conversions anyway.

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Converting libraries to kicad format is one of the pcb cleaning processes

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Here’s another converter that accepts Cadsoft Eagle V7 or V6 libraries in xml format:

https://gitlab.com/Teuniz/eagle2kicad

The output is in KiCad V5 format but that’s not a problem for KiCad V6.
The converter doesn’t need the Eagle program, it’s standalone.

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I’m going to be combining multiple schematics from TI to make my own PCB, so I want to import the footprint libraries and build the PCB from scratch.

From what you’re saying about the flawed eagle export from TI, and @maui’s response, I will give the Altium export a shot and try importing that footprint library.
Worst case I’ll use the converter @Karl linked above, that looks like the best converter so far.
Stay tuned!

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If the components in those schematics have industry standard packages, why not use the generic footprints in the KiCad library? You’d only need a special footprint if it is a special part.

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As an alternative, you can make a simple project that has all the schematic symbols and PCB footprints, port that to KiCad, and then create a library from those imported parts.

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Hi @zacsophonist ,

I’m with @retiredfeline on this. Can you supply the names of some of the project components with symbols, but without footprints, so others are able to check to see if the footprints are listed in Kicad libraries.

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Me too. I also already wrote:

And the response was:

And I don’t really understand why those should be mutually exclusive.

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Sorry Paul, I only glanced over yesterday’s comments.

Maybe this from another recent thread at least partially answers:

My thoughts were; if we knew the component names we may be able to guide the OP through the process of selecting Kicad footprints.

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I don’t like guesswork, and that is where I usually loose interest in responding to a thread.

Why would you need that other library at all if you can export the projects?
And if you’d still want a library, it’s easy enough to create one in KiCad from the projects.

To me it seems like there are lots of solutions, but OP wants it in a particular way for reasons that I don’t understand. There is nothing I can contribute to.