Question 1

kitspace kicad footprints vs official KiCad library

Accepted Answer

Kitspace aggregates multiple community libraries, including the official ones (prefixed with kicad-official/), offering a broader selection but potentially causing duplication. The official library is curated by the KiCad team, while Kitspace provides a centralized, validated collection from various sources, ideal for accessing niche footprints.

Question 2

How to add private footprints to kicad_footprints

Accepted Answer

You can maintain a private fork by adding submodules using git submodule add , as per the README. This allows integration with existing scripts, but requires git knowledge and manual commits to keep them synchronized with the main repository.

Question 3

Does kicad_footprints work with KiCad 5

Accepted Answer

Yes, but limitedly: there's a kicad-5 branch that is not updated, so it may lack recent footprints or fixes. For ongoing support, users on KiCad 5 might need to manually adapt or stick to older versions, as the project focuses on KiCad 6.

Question 4

How to ignore certain libraries in kicad_footprints

Accepted Answer

Create an ignore_modules.txt file with substrings (e.g., kicad-official) to exclude specific modules, then run ./deinit to deregister them. This is useful to avoid duplicates with already installed libraries, as detailed in the README's initialization section.

Question 5

What happens if I run the update script with local changes

Accepted Answer

The ./update script performs a git reset --hard on submodules, permanently erasing any local modifications you made within those folders. The README warns to avoid changes in submodule directories or clone them separately to prevent data loss.

Question 6

Is kicad_footprints validated for all footprints

Accepted Answer

Footprints are regularly checked via GitHub Actions to ensure they load in KiCad, but validation is limited to compatibility—it doesn't guarantee electrical correctness or manufacturing suitability. Users should still verify footprints for their specific designs, as noted in the automated workflow.

Footprint Collection

What is Footprint Collection?

Overview

Use Cases

Best For

Related Projects

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Pros & Cons

Pros

Cons

Frequently Asked Questions