I recently installed version 4.0.5 on Windows 10, and have been going thru the tutorials to learn the software. In the CvPCB window, i do not have the “Display footprint list documentation icon”. is there some setting i need to make for that feature to show?
Chip
There afaik is no way of attaching footprint documentation to a footprint (land pattern specification).
http://docs.kicad.org/stable/en/pcbnew.html#_footprint_properties_dialog
Schematic symbols (components in KiCAD speech) can have documentation pdfs linked to them.
There is two ways to do this - no idea which one is the preferred one - they are being stored in different locations though.
http://docs.kicad.org/stable/en/eeschema.html#component-fields
stored within the component definition in the lib file as a field value and can be shown in the schematic
http://docs.kicad.org/stable/en/eeschema.html#component-documentation
stored in a dcm file separate from the lib file (same folder, same name though) and is not easily visible in the schematic
Why the pdf button doesn’t show in your case might be related to this here:
http://docs.kicad.org/stable/en/eeschema.html#viewlib-top-toolbar
If it exist, display the associated documents. Exists only when called by the place component dialog frame from Eeschema.
Personally I link pdf’s in the component fields and don’t get any links anywhere in the GUI for pdfs. I have to ‘edit’ the component properties to be able to load the pdf.
But at least I only have to care about one place to get my component/part definitions right - the lib file. I don’t care about the content of the dcm/etc. files.
PS: EEschema and the underlying framework how the components are being organized and saved is being worked on and will cause one file per component and a folder per library when KiCAD v5 comes 'round. This means dcm files will be a thing of the past and the hooks into the program (pdf icons) will surely be done differently then.
Thank you, very informative post. You called it… since i hadnt yet added any documents, the ‘pdf’ button wasnt showing up.
