Multiple symbol library paths

Software
1

Hi,

I don’t know if this already was asked on this forum and I don’t know if it this feature already implement in the development branch for KiCAD. If this true, you can ignore or delete this post.( Currently I didn’t find the correct post.)

The issue:
On Linux distribution the default symbol library path points to /usr/share/kicad/library on which “normal” users don’t have write permissions.

So my suggestion is to add a new environment variable for a global user symbol directory (KICAD_USER_SYMBOL_DIR as example) in which users can place their own global library.

Workaround:
The current workaround is to copy the library from the system folder to a folder with write permissions.

2

Welcome to the community…

I can’t speak for the Kicad developers but I know one goal was to make the “built in” libraries not able to be edited. I have windows 10 and full privilege’s to anywhere and Kicad editor will not save changed to the built in libraries.
So I have created personal libraries for symbols, footprints and 3D in another area. And this new area is part of may backup script.

Just a thought.

3

Thanks for the reply.

Okay, that is plausible.

But I have thought it’s might be useful (for users) if there is an additional search path for global libraries with which there is no need to edit/copy the built-in library. I think it’s useful for all OS’es on which KiCad is ported.

BTW:
Is it possible without an additional environment variable to set multiple paths? Separated with a semicolon? Like the environment variable PATH on Linux/Unix systems? Haven’t tried that at this time.

4

Don’t try and add you own assets to the libraries provided by KiCad as they will get clobbered in an update. The recommended solution is to use environmental variables. I suggest you read this FAQ Library management in KiCad version 5

5

I do have multple environment KiCad variables. I keep a copy of the offcial libraries in my /home/user disk where the standard environment variables point to.
For example: KICAD_SYMBOL_DIR /home/myuser/kicadV5/kicad-symbols

Then I have my custom libraries in a different folder with my own environment variables.
For example: MY_SYMBOL_DIR /home/myuser/AMV/develpment/libraries/my-symbols

6

Here are my personal libraries (those starting with j_ )

image

And then I add the above folders and their containing libraries :

image
image959×508 36.2 KB

Once you get it setup its pretty easy. But I’ll admit the first time through had me scratching my head.

1 Like
7

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