Replicate Layout plugin on 5.1.8 in Windows ... how?!

Software
1

Hi all,

I’m on V5.1.8 using Windows 10. I’m just trying to get the Replicate Layout plugin (or any plugin for that matter) to show up in the list of plugins. I’m following the instructions listed here:

Not sure what I’m doing wrong. Wondering if someone that has jumped through this hoop can give me some pointers. Thanks in advance.

2

BTW, this is where I’m putting the plugin files:

C:\Users\MyUserName\AppData\Roaming\kicad\scripting\plugins

3

Make sure you put the plugin in a folder but only one folder, not multiple nested levels.
I.e. directory structure should be

kicad\scripting\plugins
|
+- replicate_layout
    |
    +- __init__.py
       action_replicate_layout.py
       ...
4

Thanks for the quick response. I can’t seem to get it to work set up like that in the users folder. But I just copied it to this folder:

C:\Program Files\KiCad\share\kicad\scripting\plugins

… and now it shows up.

The following post clued me in to trying that since the folder they reference appears to be the Program Files folder:

I’ve read that one shouldn’t put things like the scripts in the installation folder, so this probably isn’t correct. But it works!

5

I just have to say, that was worth the couple hours to figure out! This plugin is absolutely AMAZING! I think this should be, without question, a core feature to KiCad. Even with the time to get it installed, it saved me hours and probably even more important, a lot of monotonous work. Thank you @MitjaN for this amazing plugin!

6

It will be eventually, it’s been planned, but not for v6. Probably the next one after that, see https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/issues/1998.

7

I was thinking more along the lines of something like:

At the link below there are some 60+ plugins (Including the half baked ones) which are sort of waiting to be exposed to a bigger audience. My guess is that bigger visibility combined with easy and flawless install will help both KiCad users and motivate programmers of those plugins to work on a beautiful and bright future.

8

Thanks, it is always nice to be appreciated. As for your installation issues, it is preferable to install within the %APPDATA%/kicad/scripting/plugins. It might have been a typo on your end or you did not close and open KiCad completely (I find the Refresh plugins feature unreliable)

@paulvdh Yeah a plugin manager would help with visibility and installation procedure (which we still did not document well enough for newbies to get through without issues as seen here). IIRC Qu1ck is working on this and it might appear in V6.

As for plugin developer motivation. it would help, but for me personally it would not be a deciding factor. The main motivation of FOSS developers is by my opinion best described by heda on FreeCad forum

9

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