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What is a .kicad_sym file?
A .kicad_sym is a KiCad symbol library - a collection of reusable schematic symbols. Created and opened by KiCad.
- Did you know
- KiCad 6 merged the old per-symbol .lib/.dcm pair into a single S-expression .kicad_sym library file.
- A schematic symbol is the abstract drawing of a part - its pins and names - separate from the physical footprint it later maps to on the board.
- Like the rest of KiCad 6's files, a symbol library is S-expression text, so libraries can be shared, diffed and edited by hand.
- What Analyser shows you
- Open KiCad schematics, circuit boards, footprints and projects in the browser. Analyser parses the S-expression documents - schematics (.kicad_sch), boards (.kicad_pcb), symbol libraries (.kicad_sym) and footprint modules (.kicad_mod), including the "-bak" backups - and rebuilds the geometry as an interactive vector view: schematic symbols, wires, junctions and labels, or the board outline, copper tracks, pads, vias, zones and silkscreen, with pan, zoom and per-layer visibility toggles. It reads the project settings (.kicad_pro / .kicad_prl JSON) with its net classes, the library tables, the footprint cache and the ngspice simulation workbook (.wbk), and plots the SPICE simulation waveforms (.raw) from KiCad/ngspice or LTspice - decoding the analysis type, variables and samples to chart the traces or tabulate an operating point. Dropping a whole project folder opens every document together as one design with a combined bill of materials that cross-probes each part to its symbol on the schematic and its footprint on the board. Nothing is uploaded.
- Open a .kicad_sym file
- Drag a .kicad_sym file onto the Analyser home page (or tap to pick one). It opens entirely in your browser - nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and it works offline once installed.
- Related formats
- .kicad_sch · .kicad_pcb · .kicad_mod · .kicad_pro · .kicad_prl. See all supported file types.