New to KiCad, looking for footprints and symbols

I’m new to KiCad, and I think I’ve correctly installed the following libraries:

  • digikey-kicad-library-master
  • digikey-partner-kicad-library-master

Could anyone tell me where I could find the following footprints and symbols:
Traco THN 15

MAX6675ISA Thermocouple IC (listed on Digikey, but can’t find in their library)

Is it normal to have to build footprints and symbols yourself for each part, or are they usually discoverable somewhere? Is there a big database where I can find which parts are in which libraries?

Many thanks,

Have you also installed the default KiCad Libraries?

I tend to use the Footrpint Editor for searching parts, as it can do a search through all libraries. Searching for traco finds about 20 parts in 3 libraries:

Not all of them :slight_smile: but I (and many others) do consider it an essential skill to be able to create new footprints and modify existing footprints. KiCad’s own libraries have over 12 thousand footprints, but in the wild world out there, there are millions of footprints, so KiCad only has a small fraction of them in it’s own libraries, but the common footprints are present and with them you already have most of your design. KiCad also has a bunch of footprint wizards built in with which footprints conforming to some common pad orientations can be generated quickly. Any footprint with rows of pads are also easy to make with the array function in the Footprint Editor.

There are also websites that specialize in databases with footprints. Such websites usually have their own database format, and create footprints for a specific PCB design program on demand. PCBlibraries SnapEDA, Samacsys and UltraLibrarian are a few of such websites.

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