as far as I understand, the footprints are in sync with the repos at https://github.com/KiCad/xxx.pretty
In Preferences -> Footprint Libraries Manager, every entry refers to “${KIGITHUB}/xxx.pretty”
Everytime I place a footprint in Pcbnew, it is fetched from github, right ?
How about the symbol libraries in Eeschema ?
They are also on Github (https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-library/tree/master/library), but as far as I can see, Kicad uses the libraries from the local filesystem (“C:\Program Files\KiCad\share\kicad\library\xxx.lib”).
Is there any update window in KiCad for these libraries ?
Or how am I supposed to update the local copies to stay in sync with the latest updates on github ?
In my opinion, its uncomfortable to have two different update mechanisms for libraries and footprints (and 3D models, I just haven’t looked at them yet). What do you think about a unified update window which looks similar for libraries and footprints ?
Or has this already been discussed and there is a reason why the footprints are synced with github, but the symbol libraries are stored on the local file system ?
Currently there is no way to do this automatically. (Every version of kicad gets a new snapshot of the kicad library.)
You can clone the repo somewhere on your local system and let kicad take the symbols and 3d files from there. But be aware that when you share your project that other people might not have the same libs as you have.
For 3d models there is a download wizard in pcb_new under preferences. I have not tested this tool yet.
Yes it currently is a bit of a mess. But eeschem is currently worked on. It will get a similar library system as pcb_new got. each symbol in its own file and each library a separate directory. This enables the possibility to have one repo per lib and therefore to auto update it.
But we might need to wait until version 6 to see these changes. (not before next year.)