Plugin doesn't load in KiCad 8.0 `No module named 'bs4'`

[aocole]

Hello. Thanks for this plugin. I installed v1.3 via the plugin manager but the plugin doesn't load. The "plugin errors" dialog under preferences shows me the following:

  File "/Applications/KiCad/KiCad.app/Contents/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/lib/python3.9/importlib/__init__.py", line 127, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1030, in _gcd_import
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1007, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 986, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 680, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 850, in exec_module
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 228, in _call_with_frames_removed
  File "/Users/aocole/Documents/KiCad/8.0/3rdparty/plugins/com_github_jarrettr_stretch/__init__.py", line 3, in <module>
    from .kiplug.svg_writer import SvgWrite
  File "/Users/aocole/Documents/KiCad/8.0/3rdparty/plugins/com_github_jarrettr_stretch/kiplug/svg_writer.py", line 4, in <module>
    from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'bs4'

[JarrettR]

Thanks for the report.

To fix that, you'll need to BS4. So you'll have to python -m pip install bs4 with whatever version of Python is being run by KiCad.

I'm not sure where that is on Mac - Windows it's at C:\Program Files\KiCad\8.0\bin\python.exe and Linux uses the system Python.

[aocole]

Thanks - in my case on mac:

cd /Applications/KiCad/KiCad.app/Contents/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/bin
./pip3 install bs4

[ModelFKeyboard]

Maybe something with the latest versions of the below software broke compatibility with this plugin.

Would you mind testing and replying with the exact step by step setup instructions from a fresh Windows 10/11 install? Even quickly through a VM to save time.

I did a fresh install of the latest bs4, Kicad, and Python on 3 different systems (2 Windows 10 and 1 Ubuntu) and all 3 had this same error. I googled this error for all the various fix suggestions for "ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'bs4'" and they did not work.

I followed all troubleshooting steps in the github readme, to no avail.

In Ubuntu, after typing sudo apt-get install python3-bs4 I see this result:
python3-bs4 is already the newest version (4.12.3-1).

After trying the command in kicad terminal:

from com_github_jarrettr_stretch import Stretch
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "", line 1, in
File "/home/a/snap/kicad/18/.local/share/kicad/9.0/3rdparty/plugins/com_github_jarrettr_stretch/init.py", line 3, in
from .kiplug.svg_writer import SvgWrite
File "/home/a/snap/kicad/18/.local/share/kicad/9.0/3rdparty/plugins/com_github_jarrettr_stretch/kiplug/svg_writer.py", line 4, in
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'bs4'

[JarrettR]

You might try to open up the scripting console from the PCB editor and run:

import sys
print(sys.path)

And make sure that it's the same Python that you've installed BS4 onto. Also make sure to read #42 where you might need an older version of BS4 (but that's not yet your problem)

[ModelFKeyboard]

Thanks for your reply. I have one python installed, 3.13. KiCad's terminal notes an older version of python for some reason?

bs4 was installed to c:\users\joe\appdata\roaming\python\python313\site-packages which was not a part of the sys path. I added it to the system environment variables but that did not fix the issue.

I then copied all items in that folder to the C:\Users\Joe\Documents\KiCad\9.0\3rdparty\Python311\site-packages

After that, your plugin was recognized, no errors in the terminal after entering from com_github_jarrettr_stretch import Stretch. I also downgraded using pip install beautifulsoup4==4.12.3 as you recommended.

Now the error is as copied below. The error persists with various different PCB projects. The kicad file is renamed to stretch backup and does not rename back after the error, so kicad complains.

[aerospace-venoms]

@ModelFKeyboard Hey, I ran into the same issue as you but on Kicad 10 on Debian. I ended up fixing the issue with some help from Claude. Basically your issue is your interpreter is mismatched from what the plugin actually uses. You ran pip install and got bs4 into your system's python 3.13 packages. However, KiCad is running its own bundled Python interpreter 3.11 and your new bs4 isn't there.

So what you need to do is find KiCad's version of python, and install bs4 for that. Do that by opening the Scripting Console in PCBNew, and run:

import sys
print(sys.version)
print(sys.path)

Now you know where KiCad's python is. You need to get your bs4 dependency somewhere that python will find it.

Godspeed, sir. Hopefully this response is helpful to over a year later.