Moving projects between Linux and Windows

[DanielSkevington]

I'm interested if anyone has much experience moving KiCad projects back and forth between Linux and Windows?

I use Linux (Fedora 29) on my home/lab computer but if I am travelling for work I only have a Windows 7 laptop with me. I want to sync all my projects and KiCad libraries/config between the two machines when I travel so that I can do work away, then re-sync back in the other direction when I get back. I'd prefer to do this with an external drive rather than via a cloud/network solution as the home machine is not permanently powered. I've found that there are some differences between library names in the Windows and Linux installations (I think all to do with capitalisation), and obviously library paths are different. I can probably muddle through and figure it all out but I thought I would see if anyone else does this regularly and has any tips before I spend a lot of time re-inventing the wheel...

[Bassman59]

I'm interested if anyone has much experience moving KiCad projects back and forth between Linux and Windows?

I use Linux (Fedora 29) on my home/lab computer but if I am travelling for work I only have a Windows 7 laptop with me. I want to sync all my projects and KiCad libraries/config between the two machines when I travel so that I can do work away, then re-sync back in the other direction when I get back. I'd prefer to do this with an external drive rather than via a cloud/network solution as the home machine is not permanently powered. I've found that there are some differences between library names in the Windows and Linux installations (I think all to do with capitalisation), and obviously library paths are different. I can probably muddle through and figure it all out but I thought I would see if anyone else does this regularly and has any tips before I spend a lot of time re-inventing the wheel...

Use rsync (should be included with Linux, might have to download it for Windows)? This gets rid of the need for an external drive, but you have to remember to sync to the laptop before you leave and then resync back.

It might be easier to put your libraries and your designs into a source-code-control repository. I use Subversion, I suppose git is similar. My libraries on my various machines are in the default locations, but they are Subversion working copies, checked out from the repo. I'm in the habit of updating the working copy of the libraries before starting new work, and any changes I make get committed back to the repository.

[apurvdate]

v5 onward, keep only .pro file separate. rest files can be directly copy pasted to update - assuming you've similar fp-lib-table on both devices.
.pro files contain actual path to layout file that is the only issue.

i work on windows machine at work & ubuntu at home.. i've maintained similar symbol & footprint libraries at both devices & i just copy paste latest work from one device to other using pen drive..

[bson]

I use github and make sure all non-trivial components and footprints are in the project itself.

I don't recall, but I think in v5 I still need to load up the project files and relativize file paths as KiCAD has a silly habit of putting the realpath in there.

[Warhawk]

I do this.

I have a NAS storage, linux laptop (MX18) and windows laptop (W7).  The NAS hosts two folders - Archive and Sync. The Duplicati software runs my daily incremental backups from both laptops and stores them in the archive folder. This is just a one way backup. Then, I run FreeFileSync for synchronizing my data with the NAS and other laptops. It works nicely. You can host your files somewhere else, e.g. Dropbox but I think a NAS is extremely convenient thing. I use anchient ds209+ which I bought on ebay for 50€ + new drives.

PS: rsync is a great tool but can't handle conflicts which can happen when using multiple laptops.

All tools are open-source and multiplatform.

I hope this helps.

[MitjaN]

If you have the same library setup on both computers, and you are variables to point to library locations, then you can have the same sym-lib-table and fp-lib-table files. Also the schematics libraries have to be equal.

If you use project sym-lib-table and fp-lib-table files they also have to use variable for pointing to library locations, and as in this case you might have project libraries, point to them via KIPRJMOD variable.

Once this requirements are fuilfiled you can transfer the project simply by copying all project files (-cache.lib, .pro .sch .kicad-pcb).

[bson]

That works, until you have two projects with conflicting library needs.

I'd strongly recommend keeping everything non-trivial a part of your project and not rely on what's installed on the system.