[5.1.2][WISH]Introduce symbol Name instead of Value

[Michal]

My workflow makes it easier to work with my private library of fully specified symbols (parts).
Currently the Symbol's VALUE field is used as a libray symbol identifier.
This is not a good solution when working with fully specified symbols/parts.
Case:
say I have several 39k resistors, e.g. different case sizes, (39k 0603 1%, 39k 1206 1%). Both have the Value of 39k, but they're separate items (different private identifiers, different footprints assigned). For Fully specified library, they must live as separate library entries.
Currently I may use the Value field to hold my private identifier, but then
1) it's not directly displayed in the schematic (easy workaround with "private value" field displayed in EESCHEMA instead)
2) PCBNEW displays my private Inventory Identifier instead of Value, which makes it complicated to generate Assembly diagrams from PCBNEW
If there was a dedicated symbol Name property, it could hold an unique identifier (e.g. private Inventory identifier), and leave the Value field for it's intended purpose.

[Rene Poeschl (poeschlr)]

Changes like this are not possible within bugfix releases so the earliest this can be done is with version 6. (reaction to you adding a tag for the v5 release in the title of the request)

And i have good news. V6 will come with a new file format for symbols that is closer to the footprint file format. If i remember correctly then it will solve this.

You can find the file format specification draft here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lyL_8FWZRouMkwqLiIt84rd2Htg4v1vz8_2MzRKHRkc/edit

[Wayne Stambaugh (stambaughw)]

The symbols value field is not used as the symbol library identifier. The name of the library symbol is used as the identifier. It just so happens that these are identical when a symbol is added to a schematic. The value field of the symbol in the schematic is private to the schematic and has no impact on the value of the library symbol. I'm not sure exactly what it is you are asking for but I can tell you that this behavior is not going to change because it would break every schematic ever create with KiCad.

Judging from your other bug reports, I suspect what you are asking for is an easy way to use a fully defined library symbol for frequently used symbols like resistors and capacitors. This can be done using symbol properties dialog and changing the library reference link to the desire symbol and then clicking the "Update Fields from Library..." button. I would be willing to consider a context menu shortcut for this operation. If that is an acceptable solution, then I will change the wish list request title. If not, this is a wont fix. Since this would be a new feature, it would not be released into the 5.1 branch and have to be released as part of v6.

[Michael Kavanagh (michaelkavanagh)]

Marking as wont fix as you already submitted other reports for the issues Wayne mentioned:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/1827711
https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/1827707