You’re assuming that when you make a copy of a symbol on the schematic, the footprint association is also copied. It may not. In fact given that there’s an additional CvPcb step, the associations may be held elsewhere. Things were done differently in those days, and less streamlined compared to now.
Something to check. I seem to remember that libraries used to have aliases. It could be that your predecessor used as alias so you have to assign one for the “missing” library.
The files I received from my client were in a zip file. I created my own directory for the project. When I was trying to find the library with Conn_Header, I clicked on a 2 pin header in PCBnew. i tried changing the footprint and got an error that said my projects .pretty file, along with its full path, did not exist. This was not the path i created to my project but appeared to be the path the original engineer used. I recreated the original file structure and that error goes away. I still cannot find the library for the Conn_Header.
I decided to try and create a library from the footprint for the 2 pin part that is in the PCB file. I was able to create a .pretty file that contains a .mod for the footprint.
Now I go into Eeschema, got to Preferences- component libraries and try to add the library I can find the . pretty file but it does not have a . lib file. How do I create the . lib?
Using Symbol editor you certainly was able to create .lib but I can only say that working with symbols in V4 (like copying symbol to new library) was really against what I would expect (not very against).
Ho do you compare v4.0.7 and v6 gerbers?
If you make a diff comparison the results may not be right.
I would load v4 and v6 gerber pairs (I mean both F.Cu, both B.Cu and so on) in GerbView and overlap them to see the differences.
They didn’t. They were comparing archived gerbers with the ones generated by a fresh install of 4.0.7. v6 doesn’t come into it at all.
Ah, OK.
Anyway, the same procedure is valid to compare old and new v4 gerber files.
Have you figured it out yet? If v4 doesn’t differ that much from v5.1, then
Symbol libraries are .lib files with a .dcm file which I seem to remember is autogenerated.
Footprint libraries are .pretty directories containing .mod footprint files.
Did you not install the KiCad v4 libraries with the programs? You can see the structure of the libraries there with a file browser.
The library I was looking for does not seem to be with the project so I just created the part in a new library for the symbol and part on the board. I did not download the KiCad v4 libraries. Maybe that is where the part was from.
My latest problem is I am trying to change the value of several parts to DNP. I have run across several resistors that will not open when I double click on them.
I thought you had also installed the standard v4 libraries. Why would you not do that?
Yeah back in the day, copies of the footprints were not stored in the PCB file but fetched from the libraries. Not sure how you managed to generate gerbers unless the footprints were in project libraries or in the cache file.
If I may be a help, I have KiCad 4.02 installed and running on a Windows7 PC.
My customers projects run up to 40 years. This requires to keep some old hardware.
Most projects I moved to KiCad7 on a Win11 PC about 2 years ago.
I also have a Win98 PC for maintenance of some ISA boards.
Actually the installer does load the standard libraries. I did not load other libraries the were not part of the project.
I have solved the footprint problems by copying them from the PCB and creating a library.
I am now having a different problem. The PCB has a ground plane on an inner layer. The connectors I am using are through hole headers. I placed the connectors on the board and connected everything. Clearance around the pins was generated in the ground plane. Everything passed DRC. All was good. Two days later It was decided to move the connector. Now the clearance in the ground plane does not move with the part. I did redraw the screen. Also when I try to draw a trace that changes from the front to the back of the board no clearance is generated around the via. What am I missing?
What does this mean for you:
Re-generating internal zone clearances is a bit of a time consuming task, and normally this is only done when you depress the b hotkey.
I used the redraw the current screen button. Using the b hotkey seems to have worked. Thank you.