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Questions relating to designing PCBs
By The J
#120205
Hi all!

Available here is my first attempt at converting the SparkFun EAGLE libraries into KiCad libraries (I can't post attachments, so I'm using an external host for now).

http://www.mediafire.com/?d3raq8d9zx3lgkc

The link should take you to a zip file. Within that zip are two files: SparkFun.lib and SparkFun.mod. The .lib file contains the schematic symbols and the .mod file contains footprints. These are separate entities in KiCad. You can extract the file to wherever you like. Just remember to tell eeschema and cvpcb where those files are.

These files were initially generated using the EAGLE ULP script eagle2kicad-0.9b.ulp that I obtained from CADSoft's website here: http://www.cadsoft.de/cgi-bin/download. ... rfiles/ulp. Afterward, I just went through the files and cleaned up the schematic symbols (.lib file) that had problems with the conversion (missing reference designators and pin numbers, text and symbols in the wrong spots, etc.). All symbols should have reference designators--Q for transistor, L for inductor, and so on--associated with them. Let me know if any are missing that info.

There are only a couple of small issues. Many symbols still contain their default footprint, but many others are missing that info. Cvpcb will associate your symbols with their default footprints when it is first run, but you can still use it to manually associate footprints to symbols that are missing that info. Also, cvpcb will complain about a missing SparkFun.dcm, but cvpcb will still run fine. Apparently that file would contain extra documentation for your schematic symbols, such as a description and keywords. I don't know why that info isn't in the .lib file.

I did not do anything with the footprints (.mod file), but at first glance they looked OK. Then again, I'm just starting out with KiCad, so I could be missing something obvious. You won't get a 3D view for any models, though. :cry:

Interestingly, both the .lib and .mod files are actually just text files that contain information and drawing instructions for each part. I actually just opened up the .lib file in emacs and changed the reference designators (Q for transistor, L for inductor, and so on) as needed in there. The EAGLE ULP was nice enough to mark missing designators with "??". You can see the .lib file format here: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Kicad/file_formats

This library should be usable for the most part, but I'm sure that you will find problems with it. If you are feeling intrepid, you can create a fix and post it here or, otherwise, let me know (though who knows when I'll get around to it).