How to link libraries in PCB design to another managed folder?

[Anonymous]

Dear community,

we currently have an issue with shared library dependency in our old designs.

As our formula student team recently got a fusion 360 team hub, I (copied and) moved all my libraries into the hub to share the data with all team members. This works perfect for new designs, but all old designs are still linked to shared libraries, which are linked to my private student account (=my private managed folder). In consequence, I am the only person who can export 3D data of those designs into fusion.

In older Eagle versions, when the libraries were file based, there was an option which was called "use library" to choose a library file. But as this feature was discared in newer eagle versions, I wonder if there is any way to change library dependency (link the file to another managed folder)? Is there at least any ULP to change the URN in sch and brd files?

As those old designs - we are talking about 10 to 15 designs - are quite complex (up to 700 components), I do not want anybody to replace every part indiviually and as my time in formula student is over, giving the other people access to the libraries in my account is not an option.

Thanks in advance,
Johannes Steiner

[jorge_garcia]

Hello @Anonymous,

I hope you're doing well. You mention that you've copied the libraries over to the team's Managed Folder correct? If you have then the team mates would just download the libraries from the managed folder and then perform a Library Update in the schematic to update the design with the updated parts.

The update command works with the Managed libraries, the only requirement is that the libraries have to be downloaded from the managed folder and that you perform the update before adding any new parts from those managed libraries.

Best Regards,

[Anonymous]

Hello Jorge,

thanks for your reply!

Unfortunatly, this does not work. We tried it on multiple computers and for multiple users. Eagle just does nothing and also does not give any kind of warning.

I also tried the UPDATE command (UPDATE new_Library_URN = old_Library_URN;) which allways responded, that "the library I wanted to update is not used in the design" (which seems to be a bug). Therefore, I activated all libraries in the managed folder "TUWR" and deactivated my private libraries. And even swapping the libraries in the UPDATE command is responded with "the library is not used in the design", so I am completely sure, that I did not make any mistakes.

Thanks in advance,
Johannes Steiner

[jorge_garcia]

Hello @Anonymous,

OK, let's break this down step by step and make sure everything is in order.

1) Go to library.io and make a managed folder called TUWR (I think you did this but want to be sure)
2) You should be the owner of this TUWR folder (you can transfer ownership later for now you need to be the owner).
3) Invite Team members to the managed folder, make sure to invite everyone who will use these libraries and make sure they have accepted their invitations before continuing.
4) Go back to your EAGLE installation and look in the libraries tree. You'll see that you have 2 managed folders, one with your name and one with TUWR.
5) Open you personal managed folder than contains the libraries you want to copy to TUWR.
6) Right click on a library and you'll see the option Copy to a Managed Folder, left click it.
7) Select TUWR and click OK. Repeat for as many libraries as you wan to transfer to TUWR.
😎 Once done have one of your team members log into their EAGLE installation. They should see a TUWR managed folder in their libraries tree. If they do, then everything to this point should be working.

9. They'll notice that their folder is empty, they now need to go into their library manager and download the TUWR libraries.
10. Assuming the the names of the libraries in the design match the libraries they downloaded then update should work.

Because you are getting that error, let's double check the components in your design. You can use the inspector or the info command and check the properties of your components. Make sure that the library and device names match what you are expecting otherwise UPDATE won't work. It's very important that there isn't a mix of managed and unmanaged components from the same library in the same design. If you are in that situation then that would explain why the UPDATE doesn't work.

Sorry for the long post, just trying to cover all of the bases. Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,