I’ll try Cern, finger crossed!
No, same thing with CERN, can’t drag icon to “application support” springs back like the one from OSDN, So that’s not it.
I assume you turned Off any blockers such as:
Little Snitch or other download watching app…
ADB (browser plugin)
etc…
beyond that, I’m out of suggestions (at the moment…)
EDIT - I did mention this (in a round-about way) but, worth saying again: in order to have true access to the Library on the Hard-Drive, you MUST be logged in as Administrator. Being a User only gives access to the Library in your User Acct.
Well, I looked at my notes from after the problems from installing Mojave. I had to completely Downgrade back to High Sierra!
Big Underscored notes reminded me - to Never Upgrade Again!
I just Googled Big Sur problems and, the list is too long…
Sorry but, you can see where this is going…
I am logged in as a Administrator, I just now manually dragged the Kicad icon to the Application support folder, I can see the contents in the folder, but the program still can’t see them. Here is the configure path from the Preferences,
Here is the library,
I’m convinced that it’s not you or kicad but, rather OSX. Google around a bit and read some of the problems with Big Sur (including Apple’s post about problems…)
Keep us posted on your efforts…
On Catalina, when trying to update KiCad, same problem: kicad (the lower left entry) will drag but not drop to Application Support.
When I check the info on Library/Application Support, I have read-only rights.
So I do the copying manually: ctrl click onto kicad (the lower one), copy kicad, goto Library/Application Support, ctrl click onto Application Support, paste the object.
My first installation must have been o.k. though, but maybe during an Catalina update I have lost the access rights for the ‘Application Support’ folder:
system: read&write, admin: read only. (sic: admin without rights)
The Application folder has
system: read&write, admin: read&write
Maybe you try to set the rights (don’t know how to do that, Google is your friend) and then restart the installation anew.
Thats way I started this topic, to see if anyone has been able to get this to work on Big Sur, its over my knowledge at this point . I wasn’t sure if it was me or something else. All of my other programs work fine, ie Fusion 360. Just hoping that someone else had this problem. When searching , seems like a lot of problems with Kicad as far as libraries.
I think the problem is not with the install at this point since the program starts fine and you already copied the libraries manually to Application Support.
What you need to do now is add those libraries to the global library table. In KiCad main window go to “Preferences” -> “Manage Symbol Libraries…” and add the lib files from Application Support/kicad/library/
The reason you have to do this is probably because at some point you were forced to choose empty global library since the libraries were not yet copied properly at that point.
You will likely have to do the same process for footprint libraries, except libraries for footprints are folder with .pretty extension instead of .lib files and they will be in Application Support/kicad/modules/
"and add the lib files from Application Support/kicad/library/"
How do I do that? It appears at the bottom of this window that there is a path? , but the window is blank. Do I copy and paste the library ?
When I go to the foot print side I get this;
I can’t select default, it’s grayed out. What do I do, I’m lost.
From what I understand one option is greyed out as installer did not install the libraries and therefore the KiCad does not know where to look for the file. What you can do is to copy the file that comes along with official libraries (I assume have downloaded them and put them somewhere on you system. Look for this file there).
Press the little folder button under the list
For footprints you can choose empty option and then add libraries manually, similar to symbols.
The issue I’m having is that the main editor window in either footprint view or PCB layout does not appear at all after migrating to Big Sur…
You need to tell KiCAD where the footprint library is. KiCad/Preferences/Manage Footprint Libraries.
Do you mean that once you click the icon for PCBnew or Footprint editor nothing happens/shows? Can you check if it perhaps shows on another monitor or desktop in spaces/mission control?
It says right in the install window to drag the Kicad icon to the Application support folder, not Preferences folder
My bitch is that Kicad should know where it put them, then manage the folders.
Nor did I say you should install the libs in the preference folder but I can understand why you made that mistake - I meant use the menus KiCAD, select preferences menu, then select Manage footprints libraries. Using slashes in between is fairly common to indicate a menu path but perhaps easy to misunderstand as folder path.
Your title is a little different - KiCAD on Big Sur does work and can be installed. Does it have a few rough edges? Yes. Should it prevent one from upgrading macOS to Big Sur? In my opinion: No.
I seem to recall that none of the developers really use OSX. If so, that is probably where the issue is.
joost: When I click on the footprint editor or open the PCB module, the screen in both cases opens as expected, but instead of the actual editor window (that portion with the black background), there is simply a big gray area with the usual menus etc. around the edge.
We may have to wait and see if it starts working when Apple releases the macOS 11.1 update, as there are a number of known bugs that have surfaced after public release of 11.0 and and still present in 11.0.1.
Anyway, some comments to go along with guido’s - both to help him and a comment for the others:
When it comes to installing KiCAD under macOS (not OSX), the application portion installs fine, but when it comes to installing the libraries, I find an extra step is necessary due to Apple locking down the folder tree that contains the OS files, so dragging the folder across to Application Support may not work on later revisions of macOS.
- Drag the KiCAD application link onto the Applications folder alias (shortcut) as usual.
- Right-click the ‘kicad’ folder on the install image and select Copy.
- Double-click the Application Support alias - this opens a Finder window to that folder.
- Right-click within the Application Support folder in the Finder window and select Paste Item.
- macOS will ask you to authenticate with your password before proceeding.