KiCad *official* libraries

[s_light]

Hello community,

i have a bunch of 3d-models and some new footprints i would like to be included in the official 6.0 library on gitlab.
the last forum post regarding this i found is:

State of the official library (November 2020)

Hello, there is a lot going on with the official libraries right now which did already create a lot of confusion. Here is a rough overview of the current state and what that means for contributors and users: GitLab migration All library assets have been moved from GitHub to Gitlab about 3 weeks ago. The GitHub repos are now archived New repos are at https://gitlab.com/kicad/libraries/ The kicad-footprint-generator and kicad-packages3D-generator which were previously maintained outside the …

i just opened a merge request in the kicad-packages3D-source repository
and then saw that there are currently 88 request pending
and that it seems that most of the request are a single model.
i just combined a bunch of models in my request -
so what is the preferred way / how is it the easiest for the librarians?

i will now also open the corresponding packages & footprint & symbols requests…
and if needed i will rework all of these for the easiest way.
→ please let me know!!!

sunny greetings
stefan

[jmk]

Hello @s_light

There is this information: https://klc.kicad.org/… The Kicad Library Convention.
Not sure if you found this link.

The main problem with the libraries is the lack of librarians… few unsung heros with many, fairly mundane, tasks.

[s_light]

thanks @jmk,
yeah i know the klc.
in there are some at least irritating information…

G1.8 Contributions to the official library must be made using the current stable version

Contributions of library assets must be created in the latest stable version of KiCad.

and

@State of the official library (November 2020)

KLC updates

• All new contributions to the library must be done with the nightly version from now on.
• Existing open merge requests need to be converted to v6.

on researching around i found some additional info / good resources:

• How to contribute
• Tutorial: How to check footprint correctness?
  (this is linked from the Merge-Request Template in the footprint-repro)

i did not find any clear information if every merge request should only contain one component…
and i think - from looking around - that i should interpret this part in such a way:

Making a Merge Request

The KiCad libraries are hosted on GitLab - users can submit their contributions using the Merge Request mechanism. Instructions for submitting a merge request are provided below.

…
4. Create a new branch in your local repository. This allows you to work on multiple contributions at the same time.

1. Make sure the branch starts from the current HEAD of the master.
2. Don’t add unrelated changes into the same branch

so i will remap all my contributions in this way.

---

@jmk

is the lack of librarians… fairly mundane tasks.

yeah i thought so too - just saw the queue of 473 open merge-requests for the kicad-footrpint repro…

maybe a kicad library hack-weekend? to tackle this??
i would love to help at a event like this…

to be librarian is is currently out of my time
(and that seems to be the problem for most of the people)

for me personally it is most of the time the same story:
i have a project where i need one or two special footprints (with 3d models) -
if they are not there i make them - and try to follow the KLC -
and do a bunch of extra work to get theme community-library-read…
sometimes it feels a bit overwhelming to check all rules… but i try my best to fit it in the (limited) project time…

i use FreeCAD to generate the model and the footprint (export with StepUp)
so maybe i have to revisit my workflow and maybe its possible to intergrate some more auto-generate tools to StepUp…

and i think that for a bunch of people its a similar story…

so now i try to fix my backlog of components to be submitted to the community lib…
seems i have to find a bigger time-slot for this task now ;-).

sunny greetings
stefan

[cpresser]

The State of the Library (November 2020) is now outdated.

TBH, not that much happened in the meantime. We did get everything set up for the file-format changes in v6. The CI for symbols and footprints is up and running. The KLC fit the v6 features. Thanks to everybody that contributed there!

As for the 473 open MRs (its similar in the symbols repo)
I unfortunately don’t have a solution for that. Right now we are about two-ish people actively working on reviews. Given that one review usually takes roughly 1hour, and we do this in our free time, not much is happening.

One does not need to be a librarian to help, just do a review on a part that interests you. Any help is better than none. Ping me on gitlab when you are done; I’ll take a quick look and merge it.