KiKit backend and custom 3rdparty location (environment variable)

[ksjh]

Hi, I just tried to install the KiKit backend for KiCad 8.0.4. My KiCad installation uses a custom location for third party plugins and the KICAD8_3RD_PARTY environment variable is set accordingly in KiCad. But just running pip install kikit in the KiCad command prompt in Windows 11 installs all the KiKit files in the default standard location, not the one specified in the environment variable. Is there anything I can do to change this behavior?

[yaqwsx]

KiKit is distributed as a standard Python package. It follows standard packaging practices for Python packages. So if you redefine the installation directory in pip and setup PYTHONPATH accordingly, there shouldn't be a problem.

We use PCM packages only to register the icon in KiCAD. The plugin is just a thin wrapper that locates the kikit Python package and loads KiKit from it.

[ksjh]

Hi Honza, thank you very much for your extremely fast answer. Thank you also for the explanation how the PCM plugins and the Python libraries interact. Everything works as expected now.