[kayson]

How are parts libraries? I see that there are a bunch on github maintained by companies like Digikey. It's been a while since I did a pcb design but my last was using jlpcb's online editor and I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to do since they had a massive public parts library.

I used to use eagle back in the day but stopped being a fan once it was bought/ruined by autodesk. I hate managing parts libraries.

[myself248]

Managing the files and folders and paths in KiCad should be considered a war-crime. Symbols here, footprints there, 3d models somewhere else entirely by default, would you like to centralize your parts or have them portable per project? Can't have the best of both worlds, sorry!

(Edit to add: Oh yeah, any time you click to change a file, any environment variables you had in the path get replaced with the absolute path, so things which had been perfectly resilient against path breakage get brittle again automatically!)

Actually making footprints, though, is super easy. If I have a datasheet, I don't even bother searching for a footprint from someone else (which was probably badly translated from some awful interlingua format), I just make my own.

Bonus if I can find a 3d model of the part. (I work with more connectors than chips, so these are frequently available.) Makes it super easy to doublecheck my footprint, and then I can see housing clearance and stuff in 3D as I lay out the board. Kicad is really, really good at this now.

[delfinom]

>(Edit to add: Oh yeah, any time you click to change a file, any environment variables you had in the path get replaced with the absolute path, so things which had been perfectly resilient against path breakage get brittle again automatically!)

Where? Many of the editing fields are supposed to resolve paths back to variables when possible.

[myself248]

Footprint editor. Footprint properties. 3D models.

There's currently a model specified, with a path of:

${OneDrive}/KicadAssets/vendor/model-1.stp

Suppose it's the wrong model and I need to update it. Click on the pathname and at the right edge of the text box, a little folder icon appears. Click the icon and a file browser pops up. Click the correct model.

The path is now:

C:/Users/firstname.lastname/OneDrive - Companyname/KicadAssets/vendor/model-2.stp

And anyone else using this library with my OneDrive share, will see a broken model because the firstname.lastname part of their path is different.

[the__alchemist]

I use built-ins for KiCad when avail, or make manually using DSes otherwise. (Schematic and footprint). You can also download from certain websites, but I've found those are hit+miss; overall had an easier experience doing by hand, even though that sounds bad. I'll usually start by C+Ping a similar one. I have a separate KiCad library with its own Git repo for footprints, and one for schematic parts.

[mordae]

I use app.ultralibrarian.com and snapeda.com. There is also https://github.com/DasBasti/lcsc2kicad that automates downloading and converting footprints from LCSC for Kicad to use. It is handy as well.

[iancmceachern]

Autodesk totally ruined Eagle