And when you look there, you'll notice that many of them have a name
that starts with KICAD8 (eg KICAD8_3DMODEL_DIR). And therein lies a
problem, because if you change those paths, you'll have to change them
all again when you install Kicad 9. It's the reason why you appeared
to lose all your libraries when you upgraded. I got fed up with that
battle, and created my own names, leaving the standard ones alone.
Mine are:
KICAD_USER_3DMODEL_DIR
KICAD_USER_DATASHEET_DIR
KICAD_USER_FOOTPRINT_DIR
KICAD_USER_SYMBOL_DIR
KICAD_USER_TEMPLATE_DIR
This survived the switch from Kicad 7 to Kicad 8, but only time will
tell if it survives future upgrades. Of course you will then have to
update the old names to your custom names everywhere they lurk.
Fortunately Kicad files are text-based, and Linux has tools for mass
editing of text files (eg sed).
Of course you may prefer to have a KICADx library and leave it untouched
when you upgrade, copying and upgrading it to a KICAD(x+1) library and
keeping old versions of Kicad installed. However, I find it's rare I
need to truly go back to an ancient design, but when I do, I prefer to
just slog through upgrading the entire design to the latest Kicad
version and library parts before starting work on modifying it. Apart
from anything else, I've learnt how to do things better in the
intervening years, so I don't really want to go back to flawed library
parts. In case I need to go back just for a quick look-see, I export a
PDF of my schematic, and retain the gerbers.
Regards,
Robert.
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On 14/01/2025 03:31, Andy via groups.io wrote:
on the main launcher screen : preferences > configure paths
will tell you where kicad is looking for things.
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