How to set text vars to the empty string?

[cdwilson]

I'd like to have the option to set a text variable to the empty string in KiBot in cases where I don't want anything to be shown in the KiCad design (for example, for optional text fields). When I try to set a text variable to the empty string, I get the following error:

  set_text_variables:
    - name: OPTIONAL_VARIABLE
      text: ""

WARNING:(W073) Empty value from `` skipping it (kibot - pre_set_text_variables.py:130)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/kibot", line 8, in <module>
    sys.exit(main())
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/kibot/__main__.py", line 342, in main
    generate_outputs(outputs, args.target, args.invert_sel, args.skip_pre, args.cli_order, args.no_priority,
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/kibot/kiplot.py", line 441, in generate_outputs
    _generate_outputs(outputs, targets, invert, skip_pre, cli_order, no_priority, dont_stop)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/kibot/kiplot.py", line 422, in _generate_outputs
    preflight_checks(skip_pre, targets)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/kibot/kiplot.py", line 315, in preflight_checks
    BasePreFlight.run_enabled(targets)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/kibot/pre_base.py", line 78, in run_enabled
    v.apply()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/kibot/pre_set_text_variables.py", line 140, in apply
    text = text_variables[r.name]
KeyError: 'OPTIONAL_VARIABLE'

FYI, KiCad supports this in the UI for setting text variables:

Is there a way to achieve this in KiBot?

Here's a small example project which can be used to reproduce the error above:

git clone --branch test-empty-text-vars [email protected]:cdwilson/test-kibot.git
cd test-kibot
make

[set-soft]

Hi @cdwilson !
Thanks for reporting, now this should define an empty variable.

[cdwilson]

Thanks @set-soft!