I hereby certify that I am not simply asking someone else to design a footprint for me.
This is an auto-generated message that is in place on the “footprints” section of the KiCad.info forum. If I remove it and ask for a footprint to be designed anyway, I understand that I will be subject to forum members telling me to go design my own footprint or referring me to a 3rd party footprint site.
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I am obviously not what would be considered an accomplished user of KiCad. I am using it in Arch Linux.
I have two projects (created in KiCad 7) that required me to download footprints and symbols for items that I could not find in the included libraries. So I made a library (mylib) which I found in ~/.local/share/kicad/7.0/footprints and /symbols. KiCad created those directories for me.
I just did the upgrade from 7 to 8. When I open one of these projects in KiCad 8, it cannot find mylib, which is located in the previous stated directory. KiCad did ask me about libraries but said if I didn’t know how to answer, just use the default answer, which I did. I’m guessing I did it wrong.
I looked in library manager but the window that opens does not show me the .local directory. I assume because it’s a hidden directory because of the . so I can’t find a way to import mylib.
I would thing I could simply copy the contents of the 7.0 directory to the 8.0 directory but that’s not usually a great way of doing things.
So, could someone enlighten me in what I did wrong to begin with, and the accepted way for correcting the mess so I can access mylib?
KiCad keeps track where each library is locaded in library tables. Got to preferences → Manage symbol libraries and Preferences → manage footprint libraries. There you can add the missing libraries manually.
I’d still recommend copying your libraries to the 8.0 folder unless you are sure that you won’t need them in the old KiCad 7. Libraries that get edited by a newer version of KiCad cannot be opened in an older version.
I think no.
I didn’t upgraded to V8 yet so what I write is only what I think.
I suppose that when starting program for the first time you have a choice to use:
old library set
default library set.
If you select 1 you will have your mylib library but you will be still using V7 libraries.
If you select 2 you will have V8 libraries but you will have to add your mylib manually to the library list.
Problem with your suggestion is that the directory where the library is ( .local ) is not shown in the drop down window. In Unix/Linux, any directory or file that starts with a . is considered a hidden item and is not normally shown in searches. But, because KiCad actually created the directory structure under .local it obviously knows it’s there. You’d think it would let you search for something there.
If I simply copy the 7.0 files to the 8.0 directory, will they be converted automagically? I upgraded KiCad 7 to 8 and so do not have version 7 any longer. Perhaps I should just rename the 7 directory to 8 and so what happens.
Naw, I’ll just copy the files over. I’ve get more disk space than I can manage anyway. I’ll reply with my findings.
When I upgraded V6->V7 (at Windows) i selected to use library lists to be shown by me and KiCad opened window to select the library list file, but it didn’t allowed to search in system/hidden directories and library lists are there. I had to copy those lists (symbol and footprint library lists) to any TMP directory and run KiCad once more from beginning and then select the right list and KiCad copied it where needed.
If you delete all files in KiCad V8 configuration directory KiCad will be thinking it is run for the first time.
Hmm, not showing dotfiles seems to be a shortcoming of the wxWidget handling the file explorer. Notmally there’s an option to the explorer to show dotfiles. I consider this missing option a bug, expecially as KiCad suggests using the directories under ~/.local/share/kicad/<version>
But here’s a workaround. When you want register a library (symbol or footprint) with the + button, fill in the Library path field with /home/<user>/.local/share before clicking on the folder icon. It will then open at /home/<user>/.local, and then you can navigate to share, then kicad, then 8.0 then footprints.
This software in incredible! I can’t imagine the work that went into it. A few little workarounds like this one are, and should be, expected and tolerated.
No worries. BTW the way to mark a topic solved these days is to use the tick icon under the solution post. This also has the effect of quoting and linking to the solution under the original post.
I wrote a FAQ a couple of years ago explaining the creation and manipulation of Personal Libraries here.
It may be worth your while to read this. It may clear up a few mysteries.
Upgraded Kicad supplied Libraries are loaded into Kicad every time the program is upgraded, provided you tick the “recommended” choice when installing the program.
Personal Libraries need to be added (by you) to Kicad at every major upgrade. eg: 6 to 7 and now 7 to 8.
This is done with your “Manage Symbol/Footprint Libraries”.
If there are not too many symbols, footprints and projects involved; it may be worth remaking and relocating your personal libraries to improve their convenience.
The only drawback is symbols and footprints in your current and previous projects may have to be replaced with the same symbols and footprints from your new library locations if you start modifying old projects.
If you are interested in remaking your libraries after reading the FAQ, I’ll place some instructions here on how to easily move those libraries to new locations.
Well I partly stumbled into this post, I had a similar problem. Due to very limited time for my beloved electronics these days I have taken to try and keep up with KiCad use in PCLinuxOS.
First I stuck to the repository version in PCLinuxOS but it got outdated so I tried to use Flat-pack, this is working fine at the moment. The problem I have is, I have not worked out the updating work and have ended up with a mess of new libraries.
My latest is version 8.01 I think and I have started to try and sort out what I would like to recover. I got as far as realising I really need to get this personal library attachment straightened out again.
So when I saw jmk link I dived in. I have got the idea and are now fighting with my OS folder system, I do think my biggest problem is over.
Thank you for providing the description, just the right time to save me a fair amount of searching.
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