However, the Save As feature copies the whole project to another location. Other existing project won’t and can’t refer to that anyway unless the other projects are edited explicitly.
I don’t mean KiCad necessarily should rename subsheet files, especially if they don’t have the project name in their file names. This whole feature is full of design decisions, what to rename and what not. The current behavior is a compromise. I have already asked for a minimal Save As which would copy and rename only the core project files without any extra files or output files.
So just to be clear, “save as” is only available for a whole project in 5.99, not in the current version 5.1.10? I know in 5.1.10 you can “save as” a schematic or pcb file.
Yes, that’s right. Save As for whole project is a new feature. That’s why I tried to find out what TheSwede actually wanted, because it’s certainly possible there’s a bug which hasn’t been noticed.
Zip is built into current versions of macOS. Right click on any file or folder and select “Compress filename” in the context menu. It will create a zip archive filename.zip
I do this quite often (did it three times this morning). Maybe helpful…
Here’s my scheme for doing it:
• Existing project named Tofu-InProcess, everything is finished and I want to Rename it and all the related files having the Same Name.
Renaming it to Tofu-V1_Rev0
• Using Mac’s Finder (or Windows Explorer…etc):
• Locate and select all the files
• ReName as desired… (used the ‘Rename’ feature in Finder
done!
[ADDED] I usually keep my FreeCAD files in the Kicad folder and, when moving to the Released/Final version, I copy the Project Folder and Paste it into my Finished Folder, then I Rename them, as indicated…
Wow, very helpful of you guys but this is getting more and more complicated! When this thread was started just the simple “Save As” (exactly as it is in most modern computer programs) was wished for. Now it has grown like a bible with maybe too many pages
I do this quite often (did it three times this morning). Maybe helpful…
Here’s my scheme for doing it:
• Existing project named Tofu-InProcess, everything is finished and I want to Rename it and all the related files having the Same Name.
Renaming it to Tofu-V1_Rev0
• Using Mac’s Finder (or Windows Explorer…etc):
• Locate and select all the files
• ReName as desired… (used the ‘Rename’ feature in Finder
done!
[ADDED] I usually keep my FreeCAD files in the Kicad folder and, when moving to the Released/Final version, I copy the Project Folder and Paste it into my Finished Folder, then I Rename them, as indicated…
You can discover (by trying out different approaches) what works best for your work style and needs. I do what works best for ‘me’ and offered my suggestion as such…
I prefer to Not let it append the name with a number so, I set the filenames with appropriate number when I create (copy) files…
Thanks, that’s brilliant! But it seems this possibility has been removed in 5.99 (at least on Mac). Just tried to do it, could not find it… for the sake of it, will now download 5.19 for Mac and see if it was possible even then, then install 5.19 maybe with the risk of screwing up 5.99…
… did not work, could not even mark the files in the main windows as you showed in the gif (why a gif video in the year of 2021?) so could not rename anything…
Changing file name the way I did it has Nothing to do with Kicad (so, doesn’t matter what Kicad version). It’s simply using the Computer’s File tool (Finder, on Mac) to locate, select and right-click (or menubar) and ‘Rename’.
Check your files to assess your access… It’s too simple for it to be more than just changing file name in bulk…
My 63yr old kid brother’s Windows machine: He deleted all of the files he didn’t reconginze (.dll, ini… dot everything that makes it work). Then, he wondered why the machine didn’t boot…
“Why did you delete them?”, I asked.
“Well, I didn’t create them so, I thought they were spam”
So, first you would do a “Save As” on KiCad 5.99. Then you open your file browser and do the batch renaming of the other schematic subsheets that were not renamed automatically.
It’s not ideal as you would have to do two steps, but that’s the shortest way for your use case. For other users, it’s more suited to only rename the main files and not the subsheets. Maybe in the future, there could be a checkbox in KiCad-SaveAs so that it automatizes the rename-process depending on if you want to rename also the subsheets, based on some wildcard or suffix, or not.
As I understand your usecase, you’re looking to make a backup snapshot of the project at a certain point in time, yes?
To accomplish that, could you just copy & rename the folder, and leave the files inside alone?
I think you’re struggling to find solutions to this because this isn’t a workflow that a lot of people use. Personally I use a revision control tool for all of my projects, both personal and professional, kicad and otherwise (this is what @John_Pateman described above).
