As suggested by yourself and a few others, I will replace as many components as I can with ones already in the Kicad libraries. For the components that aren’t there, I’ll search on SnapEDA, and worst case create my own.
Sorry if it seems like I have tunnel vision on this one; as @jmk pointed out, I’m very new to this.
In searching for the “path of least resistance” (which I thought was simply importing an already-built library from TI), I now realize that I was mistaken and that there are many other fixes I can try.
For most parts It’s not difficult to create your own schematic symbols or footprints in KiCad. It has quite good editors for this with a very similar user interface as the rest of KiCad. The first few parts you make will probably take some time, but once you’ve learned a few tricks to use them efficiently, (simple) parts can be made in 10 minutes or so. Sites like Snapeda and PCB Libraries can be useful, but the downside is they do not create native KiCad parts and they probably need some “tweaking”. But making small changes is also a good way to get acquainted with KiCad’s symbol and footprint editors.
Just give it some time to get into a comfortable workflow with KiCad.
Jumping in to this conversation, with my perspective…
I have 20+ years of Eagle projects that have contributed to a large personal library of validated/proven footprints.
I’ve learned to not blindly trust community provided components (not just an Eagle problem…), but to explicitly validate and tune them to work well with my production processes. As expected, along the way it became faster and easier to create from data sheets than it was to google() and pray() when I needed something new.
Whether it was because I wanted silkscreen conformity, tweeked pad sizes for SMD reflow perfection, or simply a structure that reflects my current inventory of stocked parts, I’ve created and curated a large Eagle library that I’d like to bring forward - as a reusable library - into the KiCad environment.
I’ve spent some time searching, and I’ve yet to find footprints in KiCad for the dozens of “common to me” board and panel outlines that work well with my stencil printer and PnP machine; same goes for a large handful of uncommon ICs and “modules” that have found their way into my workflow.
Thus the desire to not reinvent all those years of work, but to find a clean and robust way to go forward, and (once revalidated) contribute the new things back to the KiCad community.
This is common among the whole industry. Never trust data from external sources. You can use it, but always pay extra attention and verify the details.
I have never used Eagle, so my interest in this topic is low, but apparently KiCad can directly use Eagle libraries. If you go to: PCB Editor / Preferences / Manage Footprint Libraries, then you can add libraries to your setup, and you can also change the Library format to Eagle.
The repository from Sparkfun you mention also use some scripts (and links to more scripts).
KiCad already has a: PCB Editor / File / Export / Footprints to new Library, so that leaves the import, and KiCad’s PCB Editor does have python scripting capability. I guess that with a few lines of script, you can import all footprints from an Eagle Library into the PCB Editor. Then use for example PCB Editor / Edit / Edit Text and Graphics Properties to adjust font and sizes of text to harmonise it with your native KiCad libraries, and then export all the footprints as a native KiCad library.
I also like the Idea of having a “library project” which has an overview of all personally created footprints next to each other on a PCB. I once bought “UltiBoard” with a book which had all the footprints printed out, and that was not very useful, but for personal libraries it makes more sense.
