Hi,
I am going to publish my latest project done by KiCAD with all related files (schematic, layout, etc). However, there are some custom parts in my schematic and layout from different libraries. Is it possible to “package” a project such that it also includes all parts used in my project exported in single library file? How can I ensure that others can open and edit my project without any problem? Do you have any other recommendations on open source project publication using KiCad?
Thanks.
The footprints are embedded in the layout, so no extra steps needed there. There may still be error messages for missing libraries, but that is of no importance for viewing the layout. Users can extract & reuse footprints as they please.
To enable other people to use the schematic, without having to install your custom libraries, you need to supply the “library cache”, which holds a local copy of all schematic symbols used. Again, eeschema may complain about missing libraries, but as long as the library cache file is there, the schematic can be viewed properly.
When I publish a project on github, the minimum set of files I use is:
/gerber_files
project.cmp
project.net
project.pro
project.sch
project-cache.lib
project.kicad_pcb
project__schematic.pdf
README.md
I learned this one the hard way, which @madworm helped me understand in this post: Disruptive change coming to schematics
I recently revised my .gitignore to ensure I include the cache files for this very reason.
Also as the above sentence probably shows, I also use GitHub and think it’s a great place to store projects. It can take a little bit of getting used to, but it’s really quite useful for hardware projects. My account with open source projects: https://github.com/ContextualElectronics/
Thank you very much. Your reply helped me a lot.
Thanks for repository. I will check it.