Avoiding mechanical parts from disappearing in KiCad
When creating a PCB layout in KiCad, I often have need to add a mechanical part to the PCB layout. The easy way is to add these parts directly from within PCB New. The problem is that when updating the board from the schematic, it is possible that these extra footprints will be removed.
In a post, Rebooting Electronics describes a workaround as well as how to use KiCad’s 3D view to verify the mechanical parts. In addition, an approach to managing those symbols and footprints which are used often is presented.
KiCad provides a comprehensive means to manage libraries of symbols and footprints. They are easy to create for each project but there are times when I need to reuse a symbol or footprint from another project. I have sifted through previous projects looking for these parts enough times to realise I needed to do something about it – and make use of the global symbol and footprint configurations.
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