the function generate_pcb() can't generate PCB file

[wofy-92]

Describe the bug
Hi devbisme, When I running the function generate_pcb(), I get a WARNING:
WARNING: kinet2pcb module is missing. Can't generate a KiCad PCB without it.
but I have installed kinet2pcb

** The test code in the JupyterLab**

from skidl import *

esp32 = Part('RF_Module','ESP32-WROOM-32', footprint='RF_Module:ESP32-WROOM-32')
generate_pcb()

** output message**
WARNING: kinet2pcb module is missing. Can't generate a KiCad PCB without it. @ [D:\Python310\Lib\site-packages\IPython\core\interactiveshell.py:3433=>C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Temp\ipykernel_29400\1868553726.py:4] INFO: 1 warnings found while creating PCB. INFO: 0 errors found while creating PCB.

Screenshots

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• Windows11
• Python3.10.0
• SKiDL1.2.1
• kinet2pcb1.1.0

[tapegoji]

did you fix this?

[roboPanda69]

Hi @devbisme if this problem is not taken, could I solve this ?

[devbisme]

I'm not seeing this error when running the tests on linux. You can try it on Windows and see if the error occurs there. If so, then go ahead and attempt a fix. Please use the version1 branch to make your fix. I added a test for generate_pcb() to test_generate.py, so make sure to fetch your branch to get that change.

If you don't see any errors, then I can close this issue.

[roboPanda69]

Hi Dave, the problem was majorly for Windows user. We have to include the pcbnew module in our Python library search path in the code of kinet2pcb.py.

I am writing instructions on how one could change the same for beginners using the code for the first time -

1. Open kinet2pcb.py file (inside kinet2pcb folder), in line 15 we have sys.path.append('/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages') , here we have to change this path so that it could locate pcbnew.py file.
2. For KiCAD 8.0 the default path is "C:/Program Files/KiCad/8.0/bin/Lib/site-packages", so in the code we have to change line 15 of kicad.py to sys.path.append("C:\\Program Files\\KiCad\\8.0\\bin\\Lib\\site-packages")
3. After this some might face an error for ImportError: DLL load failed while importing _pcbnew: The specified module could not be found.
4. To solve the above problem we have to Copy _pcbnew.pyd from the sites-packages folder to the KiCad/bin folder. [ For reference - https://forum.kicad.info/t/cannot-import-pcbnew-when-running-kicad-bin-python-exe-on-the-command-line/14519/15?u=prashun_pandey ]
5. We have to add sys.path.append("C:\\Program Files\\KiCad\\8.0\\bin\\") at line 14. And then our program would work perfectly.

Here is how code looked before -

from past.builtins import basestring
import argparse
import logging
import os
import os.path
import re
import shutil
import sys

import kinparse

sys.path.append('/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages')
import pcbnew
import hierplace

For Windows user they have to change as -

from past.builtins import basestring
import argparse
import logging
import os
import os.path
import re
import shutil
import sys
import platform

import kinparse

sys.path.append("C:\\Program Files\\KiCad\\8.0\\bin\\")
sys.path.append("C:\\Program Files\\KiCad\\8.0\\bin\\Lib\\site-packages")

import pcbnew
import hierplace

[devbisme]

Thanks for looking at this, @roboPanda69. It appears that the changes need to be made to the kinet2pcb utility, so I'll do that over there. Then I'll come back and close this issue.

[14790897]

please fix it

[devbisme]

Thanks for the reminder! I've updated kinet2pcb to fix the problems with SKiDL's generate_pcb(). You'll have to uninstall kinet2pcb and then re-install it to the latest version of 1.1.3. Then test generate_pcb() and let me know if the problem is fixed.

[14790897]

Thanks for the quick update! I’ve tested v1.1.3 and found two issues:

1. Critical Bug (TypeError) in Path Joining:

Your path logic on Windows is still using a tuple inside os.path.join(), causing an immediate TypeError.

Please check the code around line 18-20 in kinet2pcb.py:

Incorrect (Type Error): os.path.join(("C:\Program Files\KiCad", version))
sys.path.extend(((os.path.join(ki_pth, "bin"), os.path.join(ki_pth, "bin", "Lib", "site-packages"))))

Correct (Fix): os.path.join("C:\Program Files\KiCad", version)
sys.path.extend((os.path.join(ki_pth, "bin"), os.path.join(ki_pth, "bin", "Lib", "site-packages")))

2. KiCad API Failure

After fixing the path, the script hits an AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'FootprintLoad'.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\git-program\Embedded\beautiful-eyes\eyes-kicad\airm2m.py", line 422, in <module>
    generate_pcb()
  File "C:\Users\13963\OneDrive\文档\KiCad\9.0\3rdparty\Python311\site-packages\skidl\circuit.py", line 847, in generate_pcb
    tool_modules[tool].gen_pcb(self, file_, fp_libs=fp_libs)
  File "C:\Users\13963\OneDrive\文档\KiCad\9.0\3rdparty\Python311\site-packages\skidl\tools\kicad9\gen_pcb.py", line 39, in gen_pcb
    kinet2pcb.kinet2pcb(circuit, pcb_file, fp_libs)
  File "C:\Users\13963\OneDrive\文档\KiCad\9.0\3rdparty\Python311\site-packages\kinet2pcb\kinet2pcb.py", line 315, in kinet2pcb
    fp = pcbnew.FootprintLoad(lib_uri, fp_name)
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Program Files\KiCad\9.0\bin\Lib\site-packages\pcbnew.py", line 21635, in FootprintLoad
    return plug.FootprintLoad(libname,name,preserveUUID)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'FootprintLoad'

I also encounter this bug

[devbisme]

Thanks for the error reports. (I tested under linux so I didn't find these Windows-related errors).

I fixed the first error in the master branch of kinet2pcb.

I'm not sure why the second error is occuring unless the import of the pcbnew package is finding something that's not actually the intended package. I placed an exception if the loop that searches for the import directory doesn't find anything, but I doubt this is the cause of the error.

I have no idea about the ACTIONS_PLUGINS error since kinet2pcb isn't a KiCad plugin.

Install from the master branch of kinet2pcb and let me know what new errors we find. Thanks!

[14790897]

python .\airm2m.py 
WARNING: KICAD_SYMBOL_DIR environment variable is missing, so the default KiCad symbol libraries won't be searched. @ [C:\git-program\Embedded\beautiful-eyes\eyes-kicad\<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>:940=>C:\git-program\Embedded\beautiful-eyes\eyes-kicad\<frozen importlib._bootstrap>:241]
WARNING: KICAD6_SYMBOL_DIR environment variable is missing, so the default KiCad symbol libraries won't be searched. @ [C:\git-program\Embedded\beautiful-eyes\eyes-kicad\<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>:940=>C:\git-program\Embedded\beautiful-eyes\eyes-kicad\<frozen importlib._bootstrap>:241]
WARNING: KICAD7_SYMBOL_DIR environment variable is missing, so the default KiCad symbol libraries won't be searched. @ [C:\git-program\Embedded\beautiful-eyes\eyes-kicad\<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>:940=>C:\git-program\Embedded\beautiful-eyes\eyes-kicad\<frozen importlib._bootstrap>:241]
WARNING: KICAD8_SYMBOL_DIR environment variable is missing, so the default KiCad symbol libraries won't be searched. @ [C:\git-program\Embedded\beautiful-eyes\eyes-kicad\<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>:940=>C:\git-program\Embedded\beautiful-eyes\eyes-kicad\<frozen importlib._bootstrap>:241]
WARNING: KICAD9_SYMBOL_DIR environment variable is missing, so the default KiCad symbol libraries won't be searched. @ [C:\git-program\Embedded\beautiful-eyes\eyes-kicad\<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>:940=>C:\git-program\Embedded\beautiful-eyes\eyes-kicad\<frozen importlib._bootstrap>:241]
WARNING: fp-lib-table file was not found. Component footprints are not available.
WARNING: fp-lib-table file was not found. Component footprints are not available.
WARNING: fp-lib-table file was not found. Component footprints are not available.
C:\jenkins\workspace\build-win-9.0-stable\.build\kicad\pcbnew\action_plugin.cpp(163): assert "PgmOrNull()" failed in ACTION_PLUGINS::register_action().

Based on that error log, this appears to be an internal bug within KiCad 9.0 itself, not a problem with kinet2pcb .
Thanks for all your help debugging this.