Cannot access managed library

[Anonymous]

Hi, I need to obtain some measurements/centroids from a part in a managed library, a dsub-25 jack. However, when I attempt to open the library nothing happens. It appears I have no access. If this is intended behavior then it is hugely problematic and will make it very difficult to use the managed library in the future.

Additionally I often use stock footprints as a basis for making custom footprints. This issue would appear to make that impossible.

I hope there is a workaround for this issue. If not then it urgently needs to be fixed.

[jorge_garcia · Accepted solution]

Hello @Anonymous,

I hope you're having a great day. You can't modify the managed libraries that come with EAGLE but you can copy from them. Here's the procedure.

1. Open the library you want to copy into and minimize it.
2. In the control panel find the part you are interested in.
3. Once you find it Right Click > Copy to Library (This will only work if you did step one).
4. Now it's in your library and you can change it all you want.

There are other ways to go about this, but I think this is the most straightforward one for now. If you don't want to clutter an existing library, just create a new one and leave that open and minimized and steps 2-4 should work just fine.

Please let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

[david.mellis]

While Jorge's suggestion is probably the best workaround for now, I agree that we need a better solution for inspecting the parts in someone else's managed libraries. One thought is a read-only mode for the library editor; another is measurement tools in the preview in the control panel. Suggestions welcome. In the meantime, copying the parts to another library is the best way to inspect (or edit) them.

[Anonymous]

Since I have been struggling with usage of both .lbr and Managed Libraries I second the suggestion to revamp the libraries processes.

I my simplistic view I really fail to see advantage of Managed library , maybe it's purpose is in transparency with  next release ?

Not to complicate things - but adding external library  - say from Github - is pretty convoluted IMHO.

( Ideally it should be an option in Control panel  "Download from repository".)

And you can only add it to .lbr which was supposedly go away with introduction of Managed libraries.

[jorge_garcia]

Hi vaclav_sal,

The managed libraries are not a replacement to the normal lbr files. Their main benefit right now is that they are the glue that ties the ECAD-MCAD integration together. The other main benefit they have now is that from within EAGLE you can easily see when updates have been made to these manged libraries and update to the latest version. In the future, there will be other benefits such as easier sharing between users.

For starting out, it's best figure out the normal libraries first and then use the additional features provided by managed libraries.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

[Anonymous]

I like the idea of making the Managed libraries openable, but read-only. Just grey out all of the modification controls and have a bit of text in the corner of the screen saying "Read Only". As long as I can use the info tool to get coordinates then it should be OK.

Using the external copy method you described will work, but it's imho very clumsy.