Today I had two instances where I was troubleshooting a symbol or footprint that I thought was updated in the library that I thought was being used, but the updated component did not appear on the schematics or PCB.
My question here is not about those cases per se, which I resolved.
My question is –are there ways to get the Kicad UI to tell me for sure which file a particular footprint or symbol was coming from, or would be updated from? This includes in schematic and pcb editing environments, and the symbol and footprint editors.
Now of course I know about the Kicad > Preferences > Manage Symbol Libraries and Manage Footprint Libraries, in which library files are registered with Kicad, enabled and disabled. These set which libraries should be in use, but it’s not always clear when a change to those lists takes effect, and in general, I could not find a way to confirm that it was taking effect.
So am I missing somethings in the UI? For example, in EESchema, if I select a schematic symbol and open its properties, the dialog shows Library link: [LibName]:[SymbolName]. However, what I would also like to know is what file Kicad thinks [LibName] corresponds to. And the same in PCBNew.
For what it’s worth, I am using KiCad 7.0.8.
Thanks.
I do not think you missed anything. KiCad uses:
to identify a library name and symbol name, and it uses the path names from the Preferences / Manage … Libraries for the locations of the libraries used.
I did try to: Symbol Editor / File / New Library, then create a project specific library (In the project directory) and name it Device, but Kicad does not accept it. It complains with:
However, when I: Schematic Editor / Preferences / Manage Symbol Libraries / Project Specific Libraries, then the [+] button, Then Kicad does let me add a path to a Device library in the project directory.
So It seems to be possible to create an actual library conflict this way, but I have not investigated further.
Well it’s an indirect way, but when I select the symbol, then Edit > Change Symbol, then click on the current symbol’s library icon, it pops up a symbol browser and the title of that window shows the library path. On Linux anyway.
I read the OPs question as “How do I know when, and if, Kicad has updated a library component in a Kicad library?”
Maybe I’m wrong with my interpretation.
Also, 7.0.8 has been updated to 7.0.9