Kicad Missing Footprint - v4 vs v5?

Layout Footprints
1

Hi All,

I’m very new to Kicad and have what likely is an extreme rookie question. I’m going though the tutorial below which is based on v4, but I’m using v5. I’m able to place the component “CONN_01x08” on my schematic, but when I go to look at the preview its footprint, I just see a black/blank screen. Notice the last pic in this link shows a footprint preview for this component. I do see footprints for other components if I spot check at random.

Any tips for why I’m not seeing a footprint for this specific component?

https://techexplorations.com/kicad-4-book/index-p=98.html

thanks!
Charlie

2

The connector symbols can be used for any connector footprint. There should be quite a few different options in the official lib and without more detail we can not really help you narrow down the options.

All footprints for connectors in the official library should be in libraries starting with “Connector_”. (For example Connector_Molex for connectors made by molex and the pin headers in 2.54mm pitch are in “Connector_PinHeader_2.54mm”)

There are multiple options to assign footprints to a symbol. All of them are documented in my tutorial How can i assign a footprint to a symbol? and the whole process is also part of my beginners tutorial Tutorial: Introduction to PCB design with KiCad version 5.1 (Getting Started)

If this does not help then the least you should do is provide a screenshot of the assign footprint tool (in the past known as cvpcb). Or if you use a different tool then a screenshot of that.

And as you mention version 4, have a look at this just in case you have a mixed library setup I had KiCad 4 installed previosly. Now i updated to v5. Now i have some problems with the library setup

3

Thanks. I was misunderstanding the tutorial and was assuming each symbol automatically was linked to a specific footprint. I now see that you need to pick the specific footprint that you want to use.

It looks like the footprint library was called “Pin_Headers” in v4. In v5, the closest thing I see is “Connector_PinHeader_2.54mm”, (and other sizes). Is this correct that the library names are somewhat difference between v4 and v5?

4

Yes. All plurals (PinHeaders etc.) has been changed to singular, and also other changes.

5

Most symbols are connected to a specific footprint. But there are exceptions. The connector symbols are one of these exceptions. The others are the generic devices in the device lib (so resistors and similar things). More details see https://klc.kicad.org/general/g2/g2.1/

6

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