I was working quite steadily thru Jan and Feb then (foolishly) decided to add my symbols from my Documents/kicad/7.0/symbols directory to my project (several opamps and multiplexers I’d collected. I added the directory to the environment variables and the next time I opened the program there were NO symbols at all. I tried reinstalling from the original .exe in my Downloads folder, but that didn’t work. I uninstalled and then tried again and still no joy. Then I renamed my Documents/kicad/ directory to Documents/kicad_1, uninstalled Kicad, downloaded a new [exe installer from Kicad.org, installed a fresh copy and tried again. This time when I opened the symbols, the section names were there, but the components were NOT.
WTF is going on?
I’ve been searching this forum and stuff at GitHub and can’t find anything similar.
Thanks.
IMHO, Kicad has about the worst file mgmt system… That said;
You missed a few of my posts… Here is a Screenshot that should yield an understanding of the different symbol/footprint/etc files.
If you overwrote your files, I suggest grabbing a backup of the files (you did at some point make Backup of you system/file, I hope)…
Once finding the backups, put the contents into the respective/desired folders.
Though you can setup folders as desired, I find it best to stick with the one’s Kicad creates in your Doc’s>Kicad… That way they maintain correct paths upon updates…
The User Folders are the one’s in Docs>Kicad
Kicad folders are the one’s in Kicad’s system (varies on platforms so, I won’t attempt to say where it is (on my Mac, it’s in Kicad>Contents>SharedSupport)…)
Here is a screenshot of what happens when I go to Preferences >> Manage Symbol Libraries:
Other than the Headings there is no content. No devices, only error message.
Playing around some more I found this directory; C:\Program Files\KiCad\7.0\share\kicad\symbols
Perhaps I failed to note that there was more in the /share/ folder. But I made sure the path is correct for that location and I still get the error that the libraries failed to load.
Going bald from scratching my head so often!
It’s been a good while since I ###### with windows file system. Perhaps that ‘bin’ is both Read and Write protected for other than the system.
There are Windows users here with more knowledge about it than me.
One thing that happens far too often is the Path gets corrupted even though it looks correct.
I’ve found that simply resetting the Path takes care of it.
Not always but, sometimes the indication is when trying to set/see the 3D model, you get a little Red indicator (meaning bad path/file) - this is in the Footprints Properties panel
Be sure to read the last three posted items in the above post.
In general reinstalling the packages doesn’t help with library issues. The configuration is stored in the user area and will persist through reinstalls. Rather, try this
That solution is for 8.0 so look for the corresponding 7.0 directory in your case. Maybe rename the whole 7.0 config directory as the setting for KICAD7_SYMBOL_DIR doesn’t look correct with the bin in it, but I’m not Windows user.
After moving the config directory out of the way, running the program will offer to set it up with the standard library paths, so accept that option.
Thanks for all your replies and attempts to hold my hand as we wade through this muddy patch, but Kicad now has version 8 out in the main download area. So I installed it and it asked if I wanted all the libraries (of course I did) and now everything seems hunky dory. I’m only one project in, so it isn’t like I have to migrate several projects. I hope I’ll be able to follow all your good advice as I continue my journey. But you know, I’ll be back here again for something…
Perfection is a goal not a destination.
Glad you got it sorted out. If the same thing happens with 8.0, you can apply the same procedure to get back to “factory settings”.