Kicad Plugin not showing

[Euston_Tan]

I’m trying to install the JLCPCB PCB assembly plugin for KiCad. After adding the repo and installing it, the plugin doesn’t show up in the PCB editor or under Preferences.

This happened to me before, and reinstalling Windows fixed it that time — but I tried reinstalling Windows again today, and it didn’t help. The plugin worked fine in older versions of KiCad, but after updating to 9.0.6, it just doesn’t appear anymore.

Not sure if it’s worth mentioning, but I’m running on an ARM-based device, in case that matters.

Thanks in advance for any help!
The Plugin : GitHub - Bouni/kicad-jlcpcb-tools: Plugin to generate BOM + CPL files for JLCPCB, assigning LCSC part numbers directly from the plugin, query the JLCPCB parts database, lookup datasheets and much more.
(Rephrased with Chat GPT)

[greg_m]

I’ve had this plugin installed before. Updated KiCad today to 9.0.6 and it appears fine and works as intended. On this machine I’m on Win11.

[qu1ck]

On your first screenshot there is a yellow exclamation mark button in the dialog. Click it and copy the text here, it will explain why some plugins are not loading. Most likely there is some unsatisfied dependency.

[Euston_Tan]

    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

File “C:\Program Files\KiCad\9.0\bin\Lib\importlib_init_.py”, line 126, in import_module
return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File “”, line 1204, in _gcd_import
File “”, line 1176, in _find_and_load
File “”, line 1147, in _find_and_load_unlocked
File “”, line 690, in _load_unlocked
File “”, line 940, in exec_module
File “”, line 241, in call_with_frames_removed
File "C:\Users/Eusto/Documents/KiCad/9.0/scripting\plugins\kicad-jlcpcb-tools_init.py", line 10, in
from .plugin import JLCPCBPlugin # noqa: I001, E402
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File “C:\Users/Eusto/Documents/KiCad/9.0/scripting\plugins\kicad-jlcpcb-tools\plugin.py”, line 7, in
from .mainwindow import JLCPCBTools
File “C:\Users/Eusto/Documents/KiCad/9.0/scripting\plugins\kicad-jlcpcb-tools\mainwindow.py”, line 16, in
from .corrections import CorrectionManagerDialog
File “C:\Users/Eusto/Documents/KiCad/9.0/scripting\plugins\kicad-jlcpcb-tools\corrections.py”, line 7, in
import requests # pylint: disable=import-error
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named ‘requests’
This is the error,hope this helps.

[qu1ck]

@Euston_Tan

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named ‘requests’

This is the issue, you are missing requests library in your kicad installation.

Open kicad command prompt (should be in your start menu, make sure it is for kicad 9 if you have multiple versions) and type in this command:
pip install requests
Restart kicad and the plugin should appear, or at least get past this particular issue if there are multiple.

[Euston_Tan]

@qu1ck

pip install requests

I attempted it twice and it says pip is not recognised, how do i install pip. Thanks

[qu1ck]

You should not have to install it yourself, it installs with kicad. Try reinstalling kicad.

Also try installing kicad not in your documents folder, Onedrive or such stuff can interfere with it.

[Euston_Tan]

I completely uninstalled kicad and reinstalled in my C drive but it still does not show the plugin ,and the the error is still shown in the preferences plugin tab .

[qu1ck]

Did you try the pip command after reinstalling?

[Euston_Tan]

Yes I did and it still says pip is not recognised.

[qu1ck]

Hm, then try this
Go to location where kicad is installed in file explorer, then into bin\Scripts.
So final path looks like this for me D:\Kicad\9.0\bin\Scripts
Then in file menu Open Powershell

Then enter this command
.\pip install requests
Note the .\ at the start, it is important.

[Euston_Tan]

@qu1ck

.\pip install requests

I tried opening with terminal but it returned with this error

and when i tried using cmd from the file explorer it returned this.

C:\Kicad\bin\Lib\venv\scripts>.\pip install requests
‘.\pip’ is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

(I am limited by Kicad embeded messages as i am a new user so unable to upload image)

I don’t know but might it be caused from the difference in like the path because the path of my scripts is :C:\Kicad\bin\Lib\venv\scripts

[qu1ck]

Yes, that is wrong path. It should be bin\Scripts, without Lib\venv

Look around in your kicad install directory and find pip.exe.

[Euston_Tan]

I do not seem to have the pip.exe in my Kicad folder.

[qu1ck]

Strange, kicad should have installed it. Well then find where python.exe is in kicad (should be in bin), open powershell there and run
.\python -m ensurepip --upgrade
then you should have pip.exe

[Euston_Tan]

Apparently that is invalid syntax.

[qu1ck]

It’s not a python command, it’s a shell command. Like I said, open powershell in the folder where python executable is, run the command in powershell.

[Euston_Tan]

Did you mean the folder which contains python.exe?
For me ,Python.exe was in my bin folder and i copied ad paste what you sent and this happened, is this correct?

[Euston_Tan]

Hi , i finally managed to fix this error, after following your instructions and doing the above, i went to my kicad command prompt and typed pip3 install requests which managed to fix my error and allowed me to use the plugin. Thank You so much for your help!

[SA6LON]

Hi!

I have the same issue with no 3rdparty plugins showing, but I’m running KiCad 9.0.6 on Linux Mint as a flatpak-install…

All the installed plugins are in the 3rdparty plugins folder and the plugin manager shows them as installed, but they don’t show up in the PCB/schematic editors.

It was working in 9.0.5..

I have tried the solutions without any luck…..

73/ Marcus