Set description of library?

Software
1

Hi, I’ve created my own library for schematic parts.

In the Footprint Editor, when you do a Set Active Library, I see there is a Description field. How can I set the description?

2

Anyone know how to set the description?

3

have a look here
https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/msg11782.html

4

Couldn’t see anything about the description field in that post…?

5

1054×513 36.9 KB

6

That is the description for a component, but I’m trying to set the description for the Footprint Library.

524×553 8.63 KB

1 Like
7

I can tell you where it resides in the file system, no idea though if there is an option from within KiCAD (too lazy) for Windows7:

C:\Users\JohnDoe\AppData\Roaming\kicad\fp-lib-table

content:

(fp_lib_table
…
(lib (name SMDx)(type KiCad)(uri …\SMDx.pretty)(options “”)(descr “”))
…
)

8

So it could seem like the description is then not really a part of the library itself, but more something that can be added when you import a new library.

The GitHub repos doesn’t contain (as far as I can see) the “The way you like them.” text, so that is probably from the fp-lib-table you get when you install KiCad. When I import my own GitHub repository I can’t find a way to set the description, so I’m guessing there isn’t any GUI way of setting it. Most likely you have to manually alter the fp-libs-table file.

I added it into fp-libs-table, and then it showed up in the GUI. Too bad there isn’t any userfriendly way of setting it.

9

In Footprints Library Manager, just click on the cell in the Description column, then type your description.

1 Like
10

Thanks, bobc. That worked :smile:

11

I can’t edit that field when clicking on it in Footprint Editor Version: 5.99.0-unknown-2932fe1e6~106~ubuntu20.10.1, release build
Double-click expands and closes the library

12

“Footprint Editor” is not the same as:
“Footprint Library Manager”

You can change the description for a library from the KiCad Project manager with:

Preferences / Manage Footprint Libraries … and then either in the “Global Libraries” tab or the “Project specific Libraries” tab, you can click on the “Description” field and change it.

Or alternatively, as already mentioned:
Open the “fp-lib-table” file of a project in a text editor and change the (descr …) field for your library.

It seems to work properly as tested in:

Application: KiCad

Version: 5.99.0-unknown-ff3bd7e72~106~ubuntu20.04.1, release build

Libraries:
	wxWidgets 3.0.4
	libcurl/7.68.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1f zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.7 libidn2/2.2.0 libpsl/0.21.0 (+libidn2/2.2.0) libssh/0.9.3/openssl/zlib nghttp2/1.40.0 librtmp/2.3

Platform: Linux 5.4.0-54-generic x86_64, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK, mate, x11

Build Info:
	Date: Nov 21 2020 10:32:04
	wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8) GTK+ 3.24
	Boost: 1.71.0
	OCC: 7.3.0
	Curl: 7.68.0
	ngspice: 31
	Compiler: GCC 9.3.0 with C++ ABI 1013

Build settings:
	KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
	KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
	KICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=ON
	KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
	KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=ON
	KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
	KICAD_USE_OCC=ON
	KICAD_SPICE=ON
13

FYI, there is an issue on GitLab (originally submitted on Launchpad) for including support for optional meta data to libraries to automatically fill in the description field when adding a library to the library table.