Kicad libraries are not working

[Jan-Ake_Larsson]

I am on nightly builds. After not working on my project for a month, I find that now the libraries do not have any symbols and I am met by question marks in the schematics. Opening the library editor seems to indicate libraries are either not found or empty. What do I do?

[Rene_Poschl]

The library table stuff has been merged recently.
Please read everything related to that. (You will need to setup the lib table, and you will need to remap your schematics.)

IMPORTANT: Symbol Library Table Merged into Development Branch

I just merged the new symbol library table code into the KiCad development branch. This represents a significant change over the way symbol libraries have been managed. If you use development builds either from source or nightly builds, please see the [blog post on the KiCad website]. It contains the necessary user information for a successful transition to the symbol library table. If you find any unexpected issues, please file a bug report and include the original project files and symbol …

[Jan-Ake_Larsson]

Copying the sym-lib-table helped.

My own library does not seem to be loadable. What do I do to that?

[Rene_Poschl]

Did you try to add it using the library manager in eeschema? (found under tools)

If so, do you get an error message?

[Jan-Ake_Larsson]

The error occurs when I try to correct the symbol, using the Change button under symbol properties, when the Choose symbol dialog opens I get:

Error occurred loading symbol library Foo.

file is not a valid component or symbol library file in input/source
“/home/janla64/Skrivbord/Foo.lib”
line 1, offset 0

[Rene_Poschl]

Well what is in line 1 of Foo.lib? (not sure if they start to count with 0 or 1. So the first two lines might be the problem.)

it should be:

EESchema-DOCLIB Version 2.3
#

[bobc]

@Rene_Poschl

it should be:

EESchema-DOCLIB Version 2.3

I think you mixed lib/dcm files there. That header is for .dcm files, and if incorrect would generate a different error : invalid document library file version formatting in header. Also the correct id is "EESchema-DOCLIB Version 2.0"

The code for reading .lib files looks for two possible headers before generating the error message:

    if( !strCompare( "EESchema-LIBRARY Version", line, &line ) )
    {
        // Old .sym files (which are libraries with only one symbol, used to store and reuse shapes)
        // EESchema-LIB Version x.x SYMBOL. They are valid files.
        if( !strCompare( "EESchema-LIB Version", line, &line ) )
            SCH_PARSE_ERROR( "file is not a valid component or symbol library file", reader, line );
    }

[github link] (https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-source-mirror/blob/master/eeschema/sch_legacy_plugin.cpp#L2283…#L2289)

But the question remains, what is in the first line of the file?

[Rene_Poschl]

yup you are right. Seems i miss clicked when i tried to open one of the official libs and instead opened a dcm file.

[Jan-Ake_Larsson]

Typo in the path. Naturally, I shortened the path for the message here.

Problem solved for now, thanks.