KiCad Schematic Symbol Field table is using "," for CSV export whic fails with German Excel import

[LangerJan]

Hi,
I just walked through BOM Tutorial and I have created my BOM from the Symbol-field Table of the Schematics editor. BOM output can be fitered, sorted, …
This is really great!
There is CSV export button that can export this to a CSV file. And surely CSV is “comma separated fields” , but German version of Excel expects a “;” as separator.
I found this I have trouble opening CSV files with Microsoft Excel. good explanation and they propose to add

sep=,

at the beginning of the CSV-file to inform Excel which separator to use.
I have no idea if this would be compatible with LibreOffice, but it would allow easy BOM import for all of us.

Could you please check if this could be integrated?

Best regards
Jan

[fox]

If you use Data > from Text/CSV in Excel you can choose the delimiter:

[mf_ibfeew]

It’s always a good idea to add the currently used kicad version to your questions/issues, so we can give better answers.

v7.0.x (current kicad stable versions): there will be no enhancement and you have to live with that restriction
v7.99 (currently development version, will becoming the next v8 version): the BOM-export from the symbol fields table was already enhanced. It includes the option to choose the character used as field delimiter:

Post-v7 new features and development news

A new GUI BOM exporter is now available via the upgraded symbol fields table: [image] Fields can now be ordered and labelled for output. User configuration of the columns, labels, and groupings can be saved as presets for viewing/editing/exporting. [image] A new tab has been added to export the configured view. Users can configure the export format and save presets. Built-ins include CSV, TSV, and Semicolons. The command line tool has been upgraded to support export of the BOM from the CL…

[LangerJan]

Sure! You’re right.
I am using

Application: KiCad x64 on x64

Version: 7.0.1, release build

Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.2.2
FreeType 2.12.1
HarfBuzz 5.0.1
FontConfig 2.14.1
libcurl/7.83.1-DEV Schannel zlib/1.2.13

Platform: Windows 10 (build 19045), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW

Build Info:
Date: Mar 11 2023 03:41:46
wxWidgets: 3.2.2 (wchar_t,wx containers)
Boost: 1.80.0
OCC: 7.6.2
Curl: 7.83.1-DEV
ngspice: 39
Compiler: Visual C++ 1934 without C++ ABI

Build settings:
KICAD_SPICE=ON

[LangerJan]

The features of the new GUI BOM exporter are superb!
WOW!
Would this be something that is planned to be included in V8?

[mf_ibfeew]

thanks.
For simple questions like yours it’s enough to write “v7.0.1”
Only if you experience problems/crashes the complete version information including operating system and compiled library versions is needed.

First advice: update to v7.0.8. This can be done without changes on your files/projects, so no real risk. And between v7.0.1 and v7.0.8 were some bugfixes added which may (or may not) impact your projects/workflows.

regarding your question my answer (from above) remains:

• no change on v7.0.x
• much improvement on v7.99

You are welcomed to test the v7.99 development version. Testing (and reporting bugs) is needed to get a good release of v8 next year.
On windows the v7.99 versions installs in parallel to your normal v7-installation, so you can test without much risk.
Only important thing: test v7.99 with a copy of your projects, once saved with v7.99 you can’t open the projects with v7 anymore.

[johannespfister]

@LangerJan

I have no idea if this would be compatible with LibreOffice, but it would allow easy BOM import for all of us.

Weiss ich nicht. Aber sowas ist nicht Standard und eine dumme Lösung (da viele Anwendung damit nicht umgehen können).

Dort kannst du ganz einfach einstellen wie du die Kolonnen separieren möchtest (fragt dich standardmässig für jede Datei). Etwas das konnte, damals noch OpenOffice.org, schon vor über 12 Jahen. Dachte (hoffte) eigentlich MS hätte da mal ein bisschen nachgeholt, naja.

Ansonsten localc installieren um CSV umzuwandeln in ein Format umwandeln womit MS Office richtig umgehen kann.

[LangerJan]

Many thanks for your feedback.
I will follow according to your advice.

KiCAD rules!

Best Regards
Jan

[LangerJan]

Hallo Johannes,
privat verwende ich LibreOffice unter Ubuntu, auf der Arbeit (leider) das übliche MS-Zeuch.
Ich bin mir sicher, dass LibreOffice beim Doppelclick auf eine *.CSV automatisch den Wizard startet.
Daher war ich sehr überrascht, dass Excel stumpf die Datei öffnet und alles in die erste Spalte kippt.
Mein Kommentar bzgl. LibreOffice bezog sich lediglich auf das “sep=” Kommando. Das kannte ich noch nicht, und ist eine gute Hilfe, wenn man Datenreihen auch von anderen Messgeräten einlesen will. Das ,/; Problem hatte da jeder wohl schon einmal.
Für KiCad ist ja bereits eine bessere Lösung geplant.
Ich war zunächst enttäuscht vom BOM-Export aus dem Leiterplatteneditor, da er ziemlich unsortiert nur die Standardwerte raushaut, habe dann aber im Forum die Anleitung zum BOM-Export (aus dem Schaltungseditor) gefunden. Das ist alles was ich brauche.

[hsjmk]

We really love the plugin “Interactive Html Bom”

KiCad Interactive HTML BOM Plugin Demos

You can found that in the integrated PCM - browse here https://repository.kicad.org
Before and after exporting to html file you can sort, select and configure columns. In the browser the list has a copy button at the top right. The clipboard content is compatible to Excel and Calc (LibreOffice).

Excel handles CSV very bad when opening normal as it doesn’t present the import dialog. Calc presents it, yes. I’ve installed it at work side-by-side and have the CSV files mapped to LO instead of Excel.

The new exporter is nice too. As we usually export the interactive BOM it’s no extra step to use that as a basis for spreadsheet conversion.

[johannespfister]

Du könntest ansonsten auch ein Pythonscript verwenden um ein BOM zu erstellen. Dann kannst du es so erstellen wie du willst.