I just downloaded and fresh installed the latest stable version of KiCad (5.1.6). I think I might have found a bug (or indeed quite a lot of them), but before submitting a bug report I thought I’d write here, in case its just me doing something stupid.
After installing Kicad, I opened it and created a new blank project. Before doing anything else, I was just curious about the what kind of components might be present in the latest library and was well impressed to see how many there are!
However, when I went a little deeper into the library, I found a (big) problem: it appears that all of the symbols have incorrect (non-existent) footprints associated with them. A few randomly selected examples of symbols that have non-existent footprints:
Display_Graphic library:
Symbol EA_eDIP128B-6LW -> Footprint Display:EA-eDIP128B-XXX
Symbol EA_eDIP240B-7LW -> Foorprint Display:EA_eDIP240-XXX
Driver_FET library library
Symbol FAN7888 -> Footprint Package_SO:SOIC-20W_7.5x12.8mm_P1.27mm
Symbol IR2010 -> Footprint Package_DIP:DIP-14_W7.62mm
MCU_ST_STM32L0 library
Symbol STM32L011F3Ux -> Footprint Package_DFN_QFN:ST_UFQFPN-20_3x3mm_P0.5mm
Symbol STM32L072CBTx -> Footprint Package_QFP:LQFP-48_7x7mm_P0.5mm
In fact, I haven’t actually been able to find any symbol that has a footprint associated that exists. It seems there must have been some sort of library rename at some point and now all these symbols are pointing to footprints that don’t exist?
Note: In the past I had version 4.x.x of KiCad installed on this machine but I uninstalled it some time ago due to lack of use. When I installed KiCad 5.1.6 I just selected the default (recommended) option when it asked me to do something about about symbols. Is it possible something was leftover from the previous installation that has messed up the new install?
Thank you for that - this fixed it. I did search before I posted but must have used the wrong keywords.
Hopefully the bug will be fixed in version 6 - a new install should really either overwrite the old libraries or ask the user which of the two libraries they wish to use…
v6 will create its own settings folder and the user can choose whether to migrate the old settings for the new version. The migrated settings will automatically include also the library tables, i.e. the available libraries.
I don’t think this is confirmed for v6 yet. It was briefly discussed at one point, but I am not aware of any work going into it yet (or if a dev has claimed it to work on).
Hm you are right. https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/issues/3935 has no milestone set and no one is assigned to it. Well from the discussion i kind of assumed it is on its way because it does not make sense to go into such detail for things not in the near future.
Thanks for all your replies. Just thumbed up the issues linked - in case it helps in any way. Just a note that the FAQ is linking to the launchpad bug. Shouldn’t it link to the GitLab version, i.e.: https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/issues/2309 ?
Separately, I found a possibly related issue to above: some 3D models do not exist for some footprints, even though they have one specified. Some examples below:
Footprint library Package_DFN_QFN
FootprintDFN-6-1EP_3x2mm_P0.5mm_EP1.65x1.35mm 3D modelDFN-6-1EP_3x2mm_P0.5mm_EP1.65x1.35mm.wrl (does not exist)
Correct one (that exists) could be: DFN-6-1EP_3x2mm_Pitch0.5mm.wrl
FootprintQFN-12-1EP_3x3mm_P0.51mm_EP1.45x1.45mm 3D modelQFN-12-1EP_3x3mm_P0.51mm_EP1.45x1.45mm.wrl (does not exist)
Correct one (that exists) could be: QFN-12-1EP_3x3mm_P0.5mm_EP1.65x1.65mm.wrl
FootprintQFN-16-1EP_3x3mm_P0.5mm_EP1.7x1.7mm_ThermalVias
3D model QFN-16-1EP_3x3mm_P0.5mm_EP1.7x1.7mm.wrl (does not exist)
Correct one (that exists) could be: QFN-16-1EP_3x3mm_P0.5mm_EP1.8x1.8mm.wrl
Have I identified an actual library bug or is this again some sort of settings issue in my KiCad installation?
If its a genuine bug, I’m happy to investigate further to find and fix incorrect references. Then I can try to do a pull request. Never done before but I’m sure I’ll figure it out!).
2020-06-14T23:00:02Z edited to improve readability