Fields defined in Field Name Templates not usable in Symbol Editor

[Oivind Toien]

While Field Name Templates in ver. 5.1 stable can be defined under preferences in both Eeschema and the Symbol Editor, and those fields appear when editing symbol properties in Eeschema, it does not appear to be a way to add/insert these fields in the Symbol Editor under Library Symbol Properties other than retyping the filed name for each new symbol or any symbol copied from the standard library to one's own custom library.

Thus it becomes very cumbersome to create one's own "molecular" parts when adding information about Manufacturer and Manufacturer No. etc - There is also the risk of mistyping a field name or being inconsistent so that BOM generation is messed up with multiple columns for the same field.

I believe that these custom fields appeared in the symbol editor in ver 4. If this is not a bug, but there is a reason they are omitted in the symbol editor of 5.1, a simple solution would be to include a button, "Add Field Names from Template" in the Library Symbol Properties (in addition to the + arrow and waste basket buttons) that would for each defined template field name check it exists in the symbol and if not add the field name with a blank Value field.

Application: kicad
Version: (5.1.0)-1, release build
Libraries:
    wxWidgets 3.0.4
    libcurl/7.61.1 OpenSSL/1.1.1 (WinSSL) zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.6 libidn2/2.0.5 libpsl/0.20.2 (+libidn2/2.0.5) nghttp2/1.34.0
Platform: Windows 7 (build 7601, Service Pack 1), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW
Build Info:
    wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8)
    Boost: 1.68.0
    OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.9.1
    Curl: 7.61.1
    Compiler: GCC 8.2.0 with C++ ABI 1013

Build settings:
    USE_WX_GRAPHICS_CONTEXT=OFF
    USE_WX_OVERLAY=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
    BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCE=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCC=OFF
    KICAD_SPICE=ON

[Michael Kavanagh (michaelkavanagh)]

I only see Field Name Templates under Eeschema in the Preferences dialog.

I had a quick read through the 4.0.7 docs [1] and "Additional fields such as vendor, part number, unit cost, etc. can be added to library components but generally this is done in the schematic editor so the additional fields can be applied to all of the components in the schematic." implies the behaviour you describe never existed. However, I can see the value in this so I'll mark this as Wishlist. I'd also like the option to import/export the field name templates as a file.

[1] http://docs.kicad-pcb.org/4.0.7/en/eeschema/eeschema.html#component-fields

[Joan (joanthesparky)]

Sometimes one also fully specifies a part in EEschema and by not being able to get this information backported into a/the library one has to do it at least twice.

And the Symbol Fields Editor that is available in EEschema is needed in the Symbol Editor as well.

[Julian White (julianwhite)]

This use to work and not having it really disrupts the workflow of anyone that maintains their own library.

[KiCad Janitor (kicad-janitor)]

KiCad bug tracker has moved to Gitlab. This report is now available here: https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/issues/2382