I am using a nightly build; version info at the bottom.
The previous stable release build used aliases, and I think I figured that out well enough. However the version I am using now has root symbols and derived symbols, and I discovered that some of my op amp symbols are derived from the wrong root symbols so have the wrong pin assignments. (Not all 5 pin SOT-23 op amps have the same pinout.) If I take a root symbol (or it seems the same applies to a derived symbol) and “save copy as” then I get a new derived symbol on which I cannot edit the pin assignments. So…I do not want to change the parent or root symbol because that is correct by itself. But I do want to use “save copy as” to make a new parent or root symbol with different pinout. Can I do that or do I need to build the symbol from scratch?
Would a newer nightly build possibly make this easier?
Or maybe I need to do some text editing?
Application: KiCad
Version: (5.99.0-788-g8f778b5a0), release build
Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.0.4
libcurl/7.66.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1d (Schannel) zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.7 libidn2/2.2.0 libpsl/0.21.0 (+libidn2/2.1.1) nghttp2/1.39.2
Platform: Windows 8 (build 9200), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW
Build Info:
Build date: Jan 23 2020 07:35:52
wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8)
Boost: 1.71.0
OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.9.1
Curl: 7.66.0
Compiler: GCC 9.2.0 with C++ ABI 1013
The root (not sorry for the pun) problem is probably that right now 5.99 is in a mixed situation: handling of symbols has been changed to make room for the new file format, but the old file format is still used.
If I understand you correctly the problem you described was noticed righ after the changes. I haven’t followed the situation after that. See Symbol Library Editor Changes.
I don’t use derived symbols myself so I haven’t filed a bug report, either, and don’t know if there’s any. Maybe you could do it?
Document my steps including the present version. Document the problem.
Update the version to the newest nightly build.
If the newest nightly build eliminates the issue, I am done. If it does not eliminate the issue then I should report a bug.
See if I can work around the problem with text editing. I would first need to make a backup copy of the library. This result should be included in the bug report.
I hope to start this process within the next hour or so.
UPDATE:
The latest nightly build did not resolve the issue. I am able to edit the symbol library with a text editor. With the text editor I copy old root symbol to make a new root symbol. Then I edit the new root symbol with the symbol editor. This works OK so I am not stuck. I did report a bug.
2nd UPDATE
Not sure what happened; perhaps I was hasty to test the latest build. But now I can make new root symbols by “save copy as” when I start with an existing root symbol. I have closed my bug.