[kicad-users] Confusion over footprints

['Colin Hart' [e-mail] [kicad-users]]

Hi,

Coming back to KiCad after a couple of years away has been a fraught
experience. Apart from the personal loss of numerous brain cells, I can't
seem to find and edit footprints.

Thanks to ***@yahoo.co.uk who suggested looking at
<http://kicadhowto.wikidot.com/se1main>
http://kicadhowto.wikidot.com/se1main . This is a very helpful set of pages,
and I recommend them to all newcomers. They have at least told me where I'm
going wrong. Here is the relevant text from that page:

"Sometime before 1/17 (KiCad ver 4.0.4), a major reorganisation of how
footprint definitions were done took place. Previously, they'd been held in
".mod" files. And you could put them in the folder of your choice. Now, the
old .mod files can be read, and used, but not edited. Now footprint
definitions are in ".kicad_mod" files, and they. if my imperfect
understanding is correct. must be in folders with names ending ".pretty",
e.g. "MyFootPrints.pretty". N.B. to Windows users: The ".pretty" is NOT an
extension. It is just part of the folder name. The folder's name CAN be JUST
".pretty", by the way. I don't think you'd WANT this, but it can arise.
In the old days, a single file holding footprints could have many footprints
in one file. Now, I think, each footprint gets its own file, withing a
".pretty" folder."

By the way, is the final sentence correct? It seems daft to have only one
footprint per file, and will lead to thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of
files.

['TK Boyd' [e-mail] [kicad-users]]

Thank you for the feedback... ever so useful, as I am TOO familiar
with what I have written, **I** know what I mean by things... but
that's not the point, is it?!

As for...

Post by 'Colin Hart' ***@dungates.co.uk [kicad-users]
Apart from the personal loss of numerous brain cells, I can't
seem to find and edit footprints.

It seems i share the syndrome. I don't recall fixing the page, but
then, neither can I find the material you quoted, though I do
recognize it!!

But to answer your question...

Yes... one footprint per file. Seems odd, wasteful, but has sundry
advantages. Saving disk space isn't worth what it was! And don't
forget, you can have multiple xx.pretty folders, so the multiple
footprints can be held in groups. I don't know that you can, and
wouldn't risk, trying to "nest" you xx.pretty folders.

I recently set up a new, fresh-from-factory Win10 (ick) computer.

With "nothing" running on it, or installed...

56 processes running, 800 threads, 24,000 handles established.

Bah.

===
At KiCadHowTo.wikidot.com, the right hand nav menu is slightly
faulty... you have to take two steps to get to the footprint stuff.
Use the "Tutorials" tab, top of screen, for more direct access.

Regards,

Tom

Post by 'Colin Hart' ***@dungates.co.uk [kicad-users]
<http://kicadhowto.wikidot.com/se1main>
http://kicadhowto.wikidot.com/se1main . This is a very helpful set of pages,
and I recommend them to all newcomers. They have at least told me where I'm
"Sometime before 1/17 (KiCad ver 4.0.4), a major reorganisation of how
footprint definitions were done took place. Previously, they'd been held in
".mod" files. And you could put them in the folder of your choice. Now, the
old .mod files can be read, and used, but not edited. Now footprint
definitions are in ".kicad_mod" files, and they. if my imperfect
understanding is correct. must be in folders with names ending ".pretty",
e.g. "MyFootPrints.pretty". N.B. to Windows users: The ".pretty" is NOT an
extension. It is just part of the folder name. The folder's name CAN be JUST
".pretty", by the way. I don't think you'd WANT this, but it can arise.
In the old days, a single file holding footprints could have many footprints
in one file. Now, I think, each footprint gets its own file, withing a
".pretty" folder."
By the way, is the final sentence correct? It seems daft to have only one
footprint per file, and will lead to thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of
files.