Other possible implementations include:

• Give up about reusing main package. After all, users are expected to install only one of those, otherwise nix-store --optimise can do its jobs. This only matters for build time and distribution.
• Use multi-output package, and patch the main CMakeLists.txt to add some "modules" between each install to each output
• Manage to patch KiCad such that it can search files in another directory (without preventing the user to override these paths)

Also note that license for libraries is CC-BY-SA-4.0 and must be stated. The i18n does not seem to have any license.

I also suggest using the package with libraries by default, as it should be what most user expect.

OK, I finally used the callPackage's argument to enable libraries or 3D files, and used a similar mechanism to what symlinkJoin does but only for getting the libraries files in the derivation's output (with symlinks). The main KiCad package is not symlinked anymore, which fixes the issue /share-look up issue.

The 3 top-levels packages are now:

• kicad
• kicad-without-libs
• kicad-with-3d

Note: interested people can diff between master and dd60fbb, as this commit mostly reverts changed I have done earlier.

I added the libraries license.
I tested the all binaries in /bin. They work except for the *.kiface files, which are actually shared object (they should not end here…)

I don't fully agree for removing version without 3D. I agree that the version without libraries is now useless because the user can override the libraries paths, while it was not possible (I think) in my first draft because of the wrapper. Furthermore, they are mandatory for any basic usage, except for advanced users who could use custom/development libraries.
On the contrary, the 3D packages can be seen, IMHO, as a add-on that is not necessary. I don't feel comfortable adding 5GiB to the closure size for an add-on… For instance, the Archlinux packages split the libraries in two parts: 3d packages and the others.

For the record, I tried enabling the tests and they fail.
I'm trying to update to 5.1.0 but this fails for now.

@ThibautMarty Wow. I did not realize there were so many 3d models available. Then, of course, this should be optional. Perhaps it would also make sense to set preferLocalBuild = true; so that Hydra doesn't put these huge files into the binary cache.

But you do agree on removing the version without libraries? Even if you work with with only custom component schematics you still likely may need the standard ones once in a while.

Agreed.

I'm not sure if preferLocalBuild is made for this purpose though. Not according to the doc.
I think there is an other mechanism to prevent Hydra building a package.

But the easiest solution may be to remove kicad-with-3d from all-packages.nix and let user build it with an overlay or an override with the enable3d option ? (That's not obvious for users though)
By the way enable3d may not be the best name for that option (KiCad does use 3D acceleration).

Maybe something like clearing hydraPlatforms.

OK, I think we're done. I can squash the commits and rebase if people are OK to merge.
I'll then try to fix the 5.1.0 compilation and open another PR.

Hum, on second thought, it may be good to have a package with the 3D packages.
It's useless to recompile KiCad just to add data libraries, but "necessary" with Nix for the binary to find them. Installing 3D packages is basically extracting the tarball. "Advanced" users can point KiCad (in preferences) to this package if they want it.

Hum, on second thought, it may be good to have a package with the 3D packages.
It's useless to recompile KiCad just to add data libraries, but "necessary" with Nix for the binary to find them. Installing 3D packages is basically extracting the tarball. "Advanced" users can point KiCad (in preferences) to this package if they want it.

Oh wait, kicad.packages3d already does the job!

@ThibautMarty There was a small problem with your latest version of this PR: because packages3d was an attribute given to kicad derivation unconditionally, that package would need to be instantiated before kicad could be built. I had to move those things to passthru so that they are not required unless used.

I also did bunch of other changes on my way. Let me know if you think they are usable. I did some testing on this and was able to place some symbols and footprints just fine. I was not able to render any 3d components even though files are in place.

I agree.

For the 3D rendering problem, there is another issue: #49090. I tried with the proposed workaround and it worked fine (before your changes, but they should not break things).

We may consider including the documentation, as requested by developers. This adds ~300MB to the package.

(A bit off topic) I tried to upgrade to 5.1.0, but got stuck with wxWidget/wxPython issues:

• wxPython.h is not found anymore (because the CMake's detection scripts that changed)
• If I put CMake's option -DKICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=ON, it builds (because it does not need and does not look up for wxPython.h). I don't know if this is ready or not, as it is disabled by default.

I did not have time to investigate further since I tried that.

Here is the current version:

{ wxGTK, lib, stdenv, fetchurl, fetchFromGitHub, cmake, libGLU_combined, zlib
, libX11, gettext, glew, glm, cairo, curl, openssl, boost, pkgconfig
, doxygen, pcre, libpthreadstubs, libXdmcp
, wrapGAppsHook
, oceSupport ? true, opencascade
, ngspiceSupport ? true, libngspice
, swig, python, pythonPackages
, lndir
}:

assert ngspiceSupport -> libngspice != null;

with lib;
let
  mkLib = version: name: sha256: attrs: stdenv.mkDerivation ({
    name = "kicad-${name}-${version}";
    src = fetchFromGitHub {
      owner = "KiCad";
      repo = "kicad-${name}";
      rev = "${version}";
      inherit sha256 name;
    };
    nativeBuildInputs = [
      cmake
    ];
  } // attrs);

in stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
  name = "kicad-${version}";
  series = "5.0";
  version = "5.1.0";

  src = fetchurl {
    url = "https://launchpad.net/kicad/${series}/${version}/+download/kicad-${version}.tar.xz";
    sha256 = "1g8cka71wy3mzwf4qgr9dqpskpxmwz0qpdxjkr6i8brpwy7037ks";
  };

  postPatch = ''
    substituteInPlace CMakeModules/KiCadVersion.cmake \
      --replace no-vcs-found ${version}
  '';

  cmakeFlags = [
    "-DKICAD_SCRIPTING=ON"
    "-DKICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON"
    "-DKICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=ON"
  ] ++ optionals (oceSupport) [ "-DKICAD_USE_OCE=ON" "-DOCE_DIR=${opencascade}" ]
    ++ optional (ngspiceSupport) "-DKICAD_SPICE=ON";

  nativeBuildInputs = [
    cmake
    doxygen
    pkgconfig
    wrapGAppsHook
    pythonPackages.wrapPython
    lndir
  ];
  pythonPath = [ pythonPackages.wxPython ];
  propagatedBuildInputs = [ pythonPackages.wxPython ];

  buildInputs = [
    libGLU_combined zlib libX11 wxGTK pcre libXdmcp glew glm libpthreadstubs
    cairo curl openssl boost
    swig python
  ] ++ optional (oceSupport) opencascade
    ++ optional (ngspiceSupport) libngspice;

  # this breaks other applications in kicad
  dontWrapGApps = true;

  passthru = {
    i18n = mkLib version "i18n" "1pyklms6qb03ppxh6c5wpfj8ncdxa2410pn2xs6ia723wk9x48by" {
      buildInputs = [
        gettext
      ];
      meta.license = licenses.gpl2; # https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-i18n/issues/3
    };
    symbols = mkLib version "symbols" "0czq7aaq5xdffrgfp7vc4mjbdihgzi2c1qc8d7a9q4cdb6qxh01y" {
      meta.license = licenses.cc-by-sa-40;
    };
    footprints = mkLib version "footprints" "1xdrw0y7ngkjlz17sxfvvxyjbjk4akh38xppi5px64jjw0ca9wvn" {
      meta.license = licenses.cc-by-sa-40;
    };
    templates = mkLib version "templates" "1nva4ckq0l2lrah0l05355cawlwd7qfxcagcv32m8hcrn781455q" {
      meta.license = licenses.cc-by-sa-40;
    };
    packages3d = mkLib version "packages3d" "0ni8bjkvab7fqr8q3ypc402yz1j630szs0rzzzbz44lz14mkykzw" {
      hydraPlatforms = []; # this is a ~1 GiB download, occupies ~5 GiB in store
      meta.license = licenses.cc-by-sa-40;
    };
  };

  modules = with passthru; [ i18n symbols footprints templates ];

  postInstall = ''
    mkdir -p $out/share
    for module in $modules; do
      lndir $module/share $out/share
    done
  '';

  preFixup = ''
    buildPythonPath "$out $pythonPath"
    gappsWrapperArgs+=(--set PYTHONPATH "$program_PYTHONPATH")

    wrapProgram "$out/bin/kicad" "''${gappsWrapperArgs[@]}"
  '';

  meta = {
    description = "Free Software EDA Suite";
    homepage = http://www.kicad-pcb.org/;
    license = licenses.gpl2;
    maintainers = with maintainers; [ berce ];
    platforms = with platforms; linux;
  };
}

@ThibautMarty I'm not an active use of kicad, so you'll need to help me here. Do you think this PR as is resolves #49090? Is this ready to be merged?

I just successfully used this for a PCB. It's a bit of a shame that we don't have 3D models without recompiling kicad, but at least we've got symbols and footprints now out of the box..

@ThibautMarty I'd like to merge this soon. Is there anything broken that I've missed? We can do the 5.1.2 upgrade and documentation afterwards as well.