Plugin installation and KICAD8_3RD_PARTY variable substitution

External Plugins
1

hi all,
fresh install with ubuntu, and testing stuff.
I’ve got the variable KICAD8_3RD_PARTY point to some place (/media/cl/Data/EDL-SVN/_KiCAD_Libraries/3rdparty) the plugin manager works accordingly placing stuff there.

if i open the prefeneces → action plugins i find no plugins installed:

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and if i click the ‘open plugin directory’ it takes me to a different place: ‘/home/cl/.local/share/kicad/8.0/scripting/plugins’

something like the variable is not taken in account.

Is it the intended behavior?

4

So how did you get the Interactive BOM plugin working in 8.0.0?
(Level 4s can read deleted posts for a while)
I’m having the same problem.
8.99 is OK.

5

sort of, an apt update this morning made the Python scripting console proper again for 8.0 and now i can see the installed plugins. maybe it was just a glitch in the (apt) matrix.

Still is not clear to me where the preference → action plugins → open plugin directory path comes from, but i suspect the value is not derived from the KICAD8_3RD_PARTY variable as i think it’s supposed to…

1 Like
6

It’s not supposed to be derived from KICAD8_3RD_PARTY. There are 3 plugin scripting locations that kicad searches (technically more but there are 3 “proper” ones). System (somewhere in /usr/share), user (somewhere in $HOME/.local/share) and 3rd party which is based on the variable.

The open directory in action plugins shows the user folder. If you click similar button in the plugin manager it will open the 3rd party one.