It's time for the active library concept to go

[Jeff Young]

I think giving the Footprint Editor a module tree (similar to the Symbol Editor's component tree) will do it.

[Wayne Stambaugh (stambaughw)]

I'm not sure what Orson's plans are for v6 but fixing this is definitely on agenda.

[Kristoffer (kristoffer-odmark)]

I might suggest that when this change happens, maybe even attempt to merge the footprint-browser with the editor. They will become very similar anyway.

[Jeff Young (jeyjey)]

I thought about that when we did the symbol browser, but decided the parallel columns (libraries/symbols) of the viewer allowed much quicker access than the tree-view of the editor.

[Wayne Stambaugh (stambaughw)]

I was thinking about this as well. I agree that the browser is easier
to use but the symbol library editor has nice filtering which the
browser does not. Using the editor as a browser means we could remove
the browser code. Maybe adding a browser mode to the editor would be a
possible solution. It's definitely something to consider for future
versions of KiCad.

On 4/4/2018 6:03 AM, Jeff Young wrote:
> I thought about that when we did the symbol browser, but decided the
> parallel columns (libraries/symbols) of the viewer allowed much quicker
> access than the tree-view of the editor.
>

[KiCad Janitor (kicad-janitor)]

Fixed in revision 0cca1c6721f72455cae505339ed1d93ac3ee90d8
https://git.launchpad.net/kicad/patch/?id=0cca1c6721f72455cae505339ed1d93ac3ee90d8