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Hi,

is it possible to open a symbol file or footprint file directly in the symbol/footprint editor?

For example I'd like to click on those files from my file browser (KDE Dolphin) and open them in the editor directly without having to open a project first.



??? regards, Konrad

Generally no, The editors are not separate binarys.


However you do not have to open a project. The main kicad launcher has
all of the utilities available. Also remember that multiple symbols are
held in one file so you cannot really pares a specific symbol to the
symbol editor. Footprints are individual files.

You could associate the filetype and use that to launch kicad, that will
work for the footprintes, (.mod) but for symbols (.lib) that may cause
you problems.

It's probably best to just use the kicad launcher and sort out the
editing from there rather than trying to use kde directly.

Andy



On Tue, 12 Oct 2021 14:52:49 +0200
"Konrad Rosenbaum" <konrad@...> wrote:

Hi,

is it possible to open a symbol file or footprint file directly in the
symbol/footprint editor?

For example I'd like to click on those files from my file browser (KDE
Dolphin) and open them in the editor directly without having to open a
project first.



??? regards, Konrad

Hi,

On 12/10/2021 16:15, Andy wrote:

Generally no, The editors are not separate binarys.


However you do not have to open a project. The main kicad launcher has
all of the utilities available. Also remember that multiple symbols are
held in one file so you cannot really pares a specific symbol to the
symbol editor. Footprints are individual files.

You could associate the filetype and use that to launch kicad, that will
work for the footprintes, (.mod) but for symbols (.lib) that may cause
you problems.

I just tried (with KiCad nightly): neither works. Do I have to use some additional parameter or option?

It's probably best to just use the kicad launcher and sort out the
editing from there rather than trying to use kde directly.

That's fine for occasional work or project related work. But if I want to go through a bigger collection of libraries or even script generate stuff and then inspect it this is simply not tenable.


It seems like I'll have to open a bug/wishlist item or even fix it myself.



??? regards, Konrad

The only other thing I can think of, is that you might be able to
persuade one of the automation utilities to "drive" the kicad launcher,
or even just the editors.

xdtool is one possibility, Autokey is another (this has a python
scripting interface you can use for more complex application driving
use, rather than simple text replacing) .

It is rather a lot of faffing about if you want to do anything really
complex.

Andy



On Tue, 12 Oct 2021 17:22:43 +0200
"Konrad Rosenbaum" <konrad@...> wrote:

Hi,

On 12/10/2021 16:15, Andy wrote:

Generally no, The editors are not separate binarys.


However you do not have to open a project. The main kicad launcher has
all of the utilities available. Also remember that multiple symbols are
held in one file so you cannot really pares a specific symbol to the
symbol editor. Footprints are individual files.

You could associate the filetype and use that to launch kicad, that will
work for the footprintes, (.mod) but for symbols (.lib) that may cause
you problems.

I just tried (with KiCad nightly): neither works. Do I have to use some
additional parameter or option?

It's probably best to just use the kicad launcher and sort out the
editing from there rather than trying to use kde directly.

That's fine for occasional work or project related work. But if I want
to go through a bigger collection of libraries or even script generate
stuff and then inspect it this is simply not tenable.


It seems like I'll have to open a bug/wishlist item or even fix it myself.



??? regards, Konrad

Your first problem is that symbols are not stored by default as a single file. There are categories, or groups, of symbols stored inside a .kicad_sym library file (or at least this is the new V5.99 or V6 standard). There is not a 1:1 correspondence between a symbol and its file. I therefore don't see how it's possible to directly open a symbol from a browser or even a file manager. Eeschema can open a .kicad_sym from within using the symbol editor tool, but not directly from a file manager (I just tried it).

It's conceivable that this could be done from the Python scripting interface, but I'm not sure.

KiCad is not alone in this behaviour. Most ECAD tools I've used don't allow you to open a symbol or footprint from a file manager (and hence indirectly from a browser), as they too store them in "libraries". You would have better luck if you made PDFs of each symbol or footprint, but then you could only view them, not edit them. But that is a major amount of work.

--
Regards,
Tony

Hi,

On 12/10/2021 18:10, Tony Casey wrote:

Your first problem is that symbols are not stored by default as a single file. There are categories, or groups, of symbols stored inside a .kicad_sym library file (or at least this is the new V5.99 or V6 standard). There is not a 1:1 correspondence between a symbol and its file. I therefore don't see how it's possible to directly open a symbol from a browser or even a file manager.

Being able to select a specific symbol would be a nice bonus, but not necessary for my main use case. In the most important use case the file would just happen to have only one symbol (or footprint) inside.

What I need is to open a file and let the editor show exactly the content of this file without cluttering the screen with hundreds of other files in my library and without the need to click through a maze of dialogs before I get to that file.

Worst case: I'll write my own viewer, but I'd like to avoid that duplication of effort.

Eeschema can open a .kicad_sym from within using the symbol editor tool, but not directly from a file manager (I just tried it).

It's conceivable that this could be done from the Python scripting interface, but I'm not sure.

Any ideas where I can find a tutorial on this interface?

KiCad is not alone in this behaviour. Most ECAD tools I've used don't allow you to open a symbol or footprint from a file manager (and hence indirectly from a browser), as they too store them in "libraries".

There is no shame in being more flexible than other tools. ;-)

You would have better luck if you made PDFs of each symbol or footprint, but then you could only view them, not edit them. But that is a major amount of work.

Viewing only without editing would be fine for my most important use case. But I don't see how I could create a PDF in an automated way if I can't open the editor/viewer in the first place...


??? Konrad