I have this Thruhole semiconductor footprint library. I believe that once upon a time I imported the standard library into my own personal library folder. But I cannot open it or do anything with it, except that I can TRY to import a footprint from it to itself. Then I get this message:
For some reason it insists on looking for a Copy of that same .pretty folder.
Also when I start the software it gives me an error that it cannot find that “… - Copy” folder.
If I “manage footprint libraries” the library I want is there without the “…Copy” and the “…Copy” is not there. All looks OK. But I cannot open it. I am attaching a .zip of that folder. This is not a severe problem but is baffling the heck out of me… I even tried a new testing update of 8.08.
You don’t import a KiCad footprint library. You just register it from Preferences > Manage Footprint Libraries. There I clicked on the + button, gave it the name Bob, then navigated to the directory containing the .pretty directory, selected it and clicked ok. Then I could look at the contents of Bob with the Footprint Editor. Here’s one of your footprints.
When I attempted to import the footprint just now I was in the process of trying to finagle it to work. I was looking for a work-around. I found that the footprint editor could “see” the footprint if it was trying to import it. But it could not see the footprint by trying to open the library. In footprint editor clicking on the library (I call it a carret?) should show the list of included footprints. The other libraries work that way but this one does not.
I think that I had copied the whole library into my personal library folder so I could easily use the footprints as edit starting points.
Here you see part of what I see when I manage footprint libraries.
Sorry, above my pay level, wait for a more experienced customer rep . I don’t know why the > doesn’t expand the library for you, as you can see it did for me.
Maybe move the existing .pretty directory out of the way, unpack your zip file, and register the resulting directory?
I have only a couple of personal footprint libraries and I hardly ever move footprints from one to the other. Sometimes if I can’t figure out the GUI, I resort to the command line. Footprints are .kicad_mod files so it’s just a file move from one directory to another.
Bob’s lib-rare-ry works just fine for me. I ended up with the same result as the other customer rep.
I downloaded, extracted, and left in my Downloads folder.
I opened Kicad 8.0.8. Opened the Footprint editor, then: File > New Library > Global > Navigated to, then highlighted the folder (left the existing name) and Saved.
See attached .gif. You can see that when I click on the thruhoal semiconductor library, it does not open. The others do open normally. Those libraries I am clicking on are all in my folder for personal footprint libraries.
AT THE END OF THE GIF after I try to import the footprint, Notice at the top where it says that the footprint is “read only”?? I just noticed this at the tail end…after my OP and earlier posts.
I go to the library in Windows Explorer (aka File Manager). That tells me that the library is “read only”. I am unable to change that. However that view in Win Explorer also tells me that my other personal libraries are all “read only”.
What is going on and how do I fix it?
Why is KiCad telling me that this library is read only, when it is located in my personal library location?
I’m not a Windows user so take this with a bowl of salt. A quick search showed many other people are asking why their folder is read-only, for example here:
One pertinent reply said that with file explorer if you see a filled square next to read-only, it means nothing, it just indicates it’s a toggle. Only if you see a check mark, it’s read-only. Are you interpreting a filled square as read-only?
Maybe you should ask on a Windows forum what’s happening. But if I were you I’d concentrate on why your Thruhoal library doesn’t expand. Have you tried removing it and recreating it like jmk and I suggested?
All of my personal libraries appear to be “read only” in Win Explorer: See this context menu screen grab:
I assume this is normal. (??)
I have copied the contents of the library to a new library folder using Win Explorer. I have deleted the previous troublesome folder using both Win Explorer and “Manage Footprint Libraries.”
I can now open the new folder in Footprint Editor. But the old (now phantom and non-existent) folder still appears in footprint editor. However of course I cannot open it. I do not know what controls this?
Did you see in my .gif where (up at the top, at the end of the video) it says that the footprint is read only? What controls that? Some of the Devs must know what controls this?
Remove the obsolete entry in the footprint libraries table from Preferences > Manage Footprint Libraries Not just untick it, select it and click on the trash can.
I don’t think this is normal.
Your personal libraries were placed in a read/write area on your computer so you could modify them, add, delete, modify etc. Now you are not able to do so.
It seems that Windows has changed the permissions of the location where your personal libraries are stored. Using your operating system, check to see if windows allows read/write to your library folders.
And I was able to save it in footprint editor. I like to save my garbage for a “rainy day”… So I do not know what that “Read only” indication in Win Explorer means. But when I see “read only” in footprint editor that disallows me from normal footprint editing.
This is just my impression, but from glancing at a few posts on this topic from searches, this seems to be what’s happened:
Separate from permissions, Microsoft started repurposing this read-only flag for folders to mean this is a special area you shouldn’t be modifying. However enforcement is is left to the applications. Notepad apparently doesn’t care, but it seems Win Exploder and KiCad do.
Now Bob has put his libraries at the top level of the C: drive and this seems to be a special area. I think the best thing to do is to move all the personal libraries into the user area and just stay clear of all the Wins***.
I put 90% of what I create in C:\Bob Data. (Spreadsheets, Word Documents, etc,) My KiCad library folders are also there. All of my KiCad work is there in other sub-folders. I just checked a few other folders there unrelated to KiCad. Apparently it is all labeled “read only” by Windows. Makes no sense to me.
It is not a special area.
That ONE footprint subfolder (Bobs Semiconductor Thruhoal) was the only one which KiCad treated as “read only”.
That folder is now gone. The questions now are:
Why is footprint editor still looking for that “…pretty - Copy” folder? It does not exist. Perhaps it existed briefly by mistake.
Why does that deleted folder still show up in footprint editor? (I fully deleted it. My “recycle bin” is empty.) I cannot open this phantom folder. It does not appear in “manage footprint libraries”.
Well “read only” appears to be the default. I cannot find any folder that I use which is marked differently.
It seems oblivious to me that this cannot be the deciding factor for KiCad footprint editor.
If everyone in your class is named Dave, but your spouse picks out one of them and says she does not like him because his name is Dave (but all of the other Daves are OK) there must be something else going on.
I do not know what is?
So long as she does not like any of the others too much…
SPEAKING OF SPOUSE: I just checked my wife’s Win11 computer. It is the same…even the “Documents” folder.
If you’re not the original user that would explain it.
You wouldn’t “own” it.
These might help. It basically sounds like you don’t have the relevant permissions to the folders.
Naturally, Microsoft have been making these things both tighter, AND more obscure over the years.
I am the original owner of this laptop and I am the Admin for this laptop. Nothing shady there, other than maybe me.
It is getting late here now. I will study your link more carefully tomorrow. I think I have both the relevant and the irrelevant permissions. At least…I am certainly able to edit in all of these other folders. It was only with this one folder and with KiCad…
I think I probably originally copied this folder from the standard libraries into my own custom libraries (as a starting point for editing) and some sort of write permission (the lack thereof) travelled with it. But where it was in my custom library folder, using Win Explorer, I could not see any permission difference. Today I deleted that subfolder after copying the contents to another one which now works OK. I guess maybe KiCad thinks it must still be there because it thinks I did have permission to delete it.
Where does KiCad keep track of that?
Anyway I will dive further into the Win links on Friday.
I now have half of an idea…running KiCad as administrator. But the only place I see the phantom folder is in footprint editor, and I see no way to even TRY to delete it there.
. I don’t know why the > doesn’t expand the library for you, as you can see it did for me.
(gotta figure out what that means…)
