Hi everyone, I’m trying LibrePCB, and it looks nice, but I can’t find some symbols that are really elementary, like an antenna, a normal simple switch, a volt or amperemeter…
I can’t believe they don’t exist, and I don’t want to reinvent the wheel… So maybe someone here can tell me where I can find them… Thanks.
Hi!
Probably these symbols do not exist yet (though some switches do exist). What you consider “elementary” are considered as “unusual” for other people. See also the explanation in I can’t find XYZ in the libraries, where is it?
In addition: Antennas are very rarely used (usually you place a connector on the PCB, so the schematic contains a connector instead of an antenna symbol). Volt- and amperemeters are not really PCB components IMHO. Do you want to draw a pure schematic with no intention to make a PCB from it?
That is really a non-argument. It would make no sense at all to limit the symbols to “PCB only”! And anyway, I also can’t find DIP-switches, trimpotentiometers or microphones. LibrePCB looks like it has a great potential, but many people - like me - will not use it since too many elementary components are missing (if you can’t agree that a simple switch is “elementary” I don’t know what is elementary for you).
Could you please answer the question from above
this way the members of this forum might be able to get an idea of what you want to achieve and -perhaps- find a solution.
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Please stay friendly. I was so friendly to spend several thousands of hours developing LibrePCB and provide it to you for no money…
Also I never wrote we limit the symbols to PCB-only. The explanation why these symbols don’t exist yet(!) is described in the link I’ve posted above. It also mentions that you can easily create your own symbols.
You might believe it of not, but switches are indeed something very rarely seen on PCBs (except push-buttons). Anyway, there are several kinds of switches available in LibrePCB, maybe just not the one you’re looking for.
Hope you find something or are able to create them on yourself. Or, alternatively you could use the Eagle import as these symbols are probably available in some Eagle libraries.
Occasionally, I make PCBs from my designs but many are electrical designs, schematics for publication or otherwise do not warrant the creation of a PCB. I opted to try Libré PCB for several reasons but I will mostly be using it for creating schematics and yes, I do use antennae and many different types of switches. In fact, I need to create a DP3T switch today (that I’m having trouble with).
Having an organized, shared library of contributed parts that anyone can draw from has tremendous value. Better yet, allowing caring, consciencious people to rate the value of contributions and incorporating the best ones into future “standard” library will allow Libré PCB to expand it’s libraries rapidly with little effort on the part of the developer(s). This can inevitably serve to help move Libré PCB closer to the top of the schematic capture/PCB generation software offerings. We all benefit.
Of course we are aware of that. But you have to be patient as creating libraries requires a huge effort. There are millions of electronic parts out there, guess how long it takes to create libraries for them…
Please just be patient. And in the mean time, it’s easy to overcome the missing library elements either by drawing them by yourself, or by importing Eagle libraries.