Windows Install Issues | TLS/SSL errors

[C-BoT-AU]

I had several issues trying to install KiKit on Windows 10, likely related to KiCad being installed via Scoop. That being said, this could also be applicable to others with odd setups or environment variables so I wanted to share this post in the hopes it might help someone else.

Issue 1:

"KiCad Command Prompt" link from the Start Menu did not work (closed automatically). Solution; open a fresh Command Prompt then execute the batch file manually:

cd "D:\Scoop\apps\kicad\current\bin"
.\kicad-cmd.bat

Then, the path in my command prompt changed to reflect D:\Users\%USER%\Documents\KiCad\8.0>

Issue 2:

When trying to run pip install kikit, I kept getting TLS/SSL errors:

pip is configured with locations that require TLS/SSL, however the ssl module in Python is not available
(despite having openssl and openssl.exe installed and added to PATH)

When I tried executing just pip3 install kikit from the KiCad scripts directory, it also then attempted to find Python in a strange /.jenkins/ location that is not in my PATH list nor was ever installed.

Putting it all together, from within the:

************************************
* KiCad 8.0 Command Prompt
************************************
You may now invoke python or pip targeting kicad's install

I called both the specific Python and pip3 executables to install it:

"D:\Scoop\apps\kicad\current\bin\python.exe" "D:\Scoop\apps\kicad\current\bin\Scripts\pip3.exe" install kikit

Of course, these paths only work if you have Scoop installing to your D:, but you can modify as needed keeping the important bits: "...\kicad\current\bin\python.exe" "...\kicad\current\bin\Scripts\pip3.exe" install kikit. Given the level of customisation I have been adding to KiCad, I am likely to stop using Scoop for it shortly and install it as a standalone app.