Schematic is Blank, Odd Issue

Schematic
1
  • Unity 7.7 (Ubuntu 24.0)
  • 11th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-11700K @ 3.60GHz × 16
  • AMD Radeon RX 580 Series
  • Currently Kicad 9.0.6

Edit: changed title, see below

Sorry if the wrong category and please feel free to move.

Been using and loving Kicad since V 6, but have sold a physical project and want to provide the owner with schematics.

As many other posts here, the problem is in a previously working project the schematic is empty. Also true of the PCB but I’m not using that or concerned about it. On opening the schematic, no errors but a brief flash showing it’s loading the components. When I add new symbol you can see “already placed” but nothing renders.

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This was in V8 when I discovered it, went through the harder-than-need-to-be process of purging old versions and am now on 9.0.6 latest. The hardware has remained unchanged since creation of these files, was I believe 23.0 at the time of creation.

I have done my homework and tried multiple suggested fixes mostly from these forums:

-Both before and after upgrading to V 9 I tested in an empty project, symbols and lines render just fine.

  • Delete .prl files
  • recover from Kicad backups/zip
  • Remove all prefs directories, .configs
  • Disabled graphics acceleration
  • Tried various library options (global, custom, empty)
  • Confirmed paths
  • Confirmed elements set to visible in PCB view as suggested here (even though not using it)
  • Reset all of the ownership of elements in /usr/share/kicad to myself instead of root, still no love
  • Repeated most of the above after updating to V 9.

I am sure it’s a path issue, just can’t see where or why. I have opened the pro and sch files and recognize .json; I was a “fair” programmer for 28 years so if there’s some coding stuff I can do to get at the root of it I’m game.

I also see a verbose or debug option appears difficult at best, what can I do here?

EDIT: Opened some other old projects and they’re fine, when I look at the BOM there are no items in the list so my initial assessment of “already loaded” is incorrect. It’s something else. As I mentioned, I can see a flash of “loading” and references to symbols. I’m at a loss.

2

I’m afraid people won’t be able to help without posting the project - can you do this? Failing that, you can file a confidential issue on GitLab.

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cannons-project-2023-11-21_083608.zip (3.3 KB)

Thanks James, I was wondering about that, here it is. Been fiddling with this more looking at the Bill of Materials and I’m seeing it’s empty, my other projects have a list. It appears to be somehow project related, for some reason this project has nothing in it. I have multiple versions of this one and none of the versions are showing anything. I think I’m hosed on the most important one LOL

I still get a flash of “loading [list of components]” when it loads though, Nothing has changed in any of these files in two years, I wonder what could have happened?

4

The schematic file is empty… So it’s not a loading issue. I would think you’ve either saved an empty schematic by mistake, or there was a bug in saving (which while not impossible, is unlikely as we’d expect some pretty critical bug reports about that!).

This is the entirerty of the schematic file contents:

(kicad_sch (version 20230121) (generator eeschema)
  (paper "A4")
  (lib_symbols)
  (symbol_instances)
)
1 Like
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Thank you, I’ve been digging still . . . I have multiple versions in multiple locations because as I built this it made sense to store in different locations (TLDR) and even have a pre-upgrade backup directory dated 12-23, all versions of this project are empty. It’s bizarre, I modified it a bazillion times over a period of months and it was fine the last time I opened it (2023.) I’m about to tackle my tarball backups but may not go back far enough. I agree, everything I’m looking at is empty, and it’s probably PEBCAC but not seeing how.

6

Sorry for the white noise everyone, this is some weird one-off I can’t explain without a way to log (or is there one?) I have some files that are good up to January 2024 where the files are empty, and there are none after. The actual project was completed in May of 2024. I know I was working on it until then, my system has no modified project files in this time range. It’s as if any projects with “cannons” in it during that time never existed.

Fortunately the circuit is so pounded into my head I can visualize it to recreate it, I just wish I didn’t have to. :rofl:

7

What about the automatic backups ?

1 Like
8

Right? It’s as if it never existed. Linux is gaslighting me! :rofl:

9

Weird idea:

Could it be that you made a copy of that project at some time, and that the complete project is somewhere else on your system?

1 Like
10

Thanks, when something goes wrong by experience, I always think it’s something stupid I did (which is probably still the case.) I have hunted everywhere, even in DVD backups. I even went to all the sites where I seek help from time to time and no schematic. I have an “old version” that uses different components and is missing the fog relays, I have individual test projects of the lights, sound cards, and fog relays, but between January and May there is zilch, nada, nothing. I know the last I touched it was in may because I completed this in May 2024:

I know it would have to be in May, all the .ino timestamps for the Arduino code carry that date. And no matter how nerdy I think I am I would have NEVER tried this without a full schematic:

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It’s crazy, it’s like it never existed.

11

I also have a laptop on which I did some initial work and look at this: The SAME FILE ISSUES are there, around Jan 2024 I stopped using the lappie and started working on the MSI desktop.

I have these guys coming in next week to see if they can get to the bottom of it. :rofl:

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12

Well, it is Halloween season!

1 Like