Pcbnew: PCB file “/Users/dirk/kicad/ilda_p/ilda_p.kicad_pcb” is already open

Software
1

Hello,
I am a KICAD newbie and have downloaded the “vanilla” KiCad dmg file for OS X, no aged or nightly version.
After creating my first PCB, I installed Gerbv via Homebrew(OSX package manager),to check before ordering PCBs.
This gerbv program worked several times, but crashed my Mac once. After restarting, I have the Problem mentioned in the title. The kicad_pcb file opened several times before. Other kicad_pcb files open fine.
The same problem occurs when I start pcbnew from within kicad , or on its own…

This is my setup:
Application: KiCad
Version: (5.1.10-1-10_14), release build
Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.0.4
libcurl/7.54.0 LibreSSL/2.6.5 zlib/1.2.11 nghttp2/1.24.1
Platform: macOS Mojave Version 10.14.6 (Build 18G103), 64 bit, Little endian, wxMac
Build Info:
wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,STL containers,compatible with 2.8)
Boost: 1.75.0
OpenCASCADE Technology: 7.5.1
Curl: 7.54.0
Compiler: Clang 10.0.1 with C++ ABI 1002
Build settings:
USE_WX_GRAPHICS_CONTEXT=ON
USE_WX_OVERLAY=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=OFF
KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=OFF
KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON
KICAD_USE_OCE=OFF
KICAD_USE_OCC=ON
KICAD_SPICE=ON

I read about some lock file in my home dir, but even with
ls -la on the cmd line there is nothing I didn’t put there myself…
How do i gain access to my file(s) again?

2

Given that the message mentions the file path specifically, have you tried looking in its directory in addition to your home dir, for a lock file?

3

No, there was nothing, especially no file ending in lck or lock.
I managed to reuse an older version of my work by restoring a backup, losing about two hours of work.
Needless to say, this shatters my trust in the whole kicad system.

4

I found it after some googling:
the Lockfiles are in ~/Library/Caches/kicad, so doing
rm -r /Users/dirk/Library/Caches/kicad
solved the issue for me!

5

KiCad just needs to be a bit smarter about deleting stale lockfiles.

6

FWIW I’ve been using KiCad on macOS for at least four years and never had a problem with file locking.

As a possible alternative to Gerbv, Cuprum is a useful Gerber viewer for macOS - there is a free version and a reasonably priced commercial version.

7

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.