KiCad 5.0.0-rc3 Released - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: s8548a
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 03, 2018, 05:16:21 am
content: KiCad 5.0.0-rc3 has been released this week.Download:Windows:http://downloads.kicad-pcb.org/windows/nightly/OSX:http://downloads.kicad-pcb.org/osx/nightly/Linux:http://kicad-pcb.org/download/Bug Reporting:https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/

author: Warhawk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 05, 2018, 11:06:55 am
content: Hmm, RC3 sounds optimistic. I may give it a shot for a small board.Has anybody already tried it?

author: Bassman59
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 05, 2018, 05:27:08 pm
content: Quote from: Warhawk on July 05, 2018, 11:06:55 amWell, the RC was tagged yesterday. But, I've been using Kicad nightlies for a couple of years now, and I had a couple of boards built last month using whatever was the most-recent nightly at the time. The boards work as designed.It's eminently usable.

author: awallin
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 05, 2018, 05:45:32 pm
content: Quote from: Bassman59 on July 05, 2018, 05:27:08 pmand what would be the top-3 or so features in 5.0 that would make me want to switch from 4.0.7 ?

author: Warhawk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 05, 2018, 06:23:42 pm
content: Vias Stitching

author: Seph.b
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 05, 2018, 11:37:22 pm
content: Can the new version be installed along side the old v4 stable version?

author: donotdespisethesnake
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 06, 2018, 05:30:35 am
content: Yes, with a little effort.

author: s8548a
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 06, 2018, 06:11:42 am
content: Quote from: awallin on July 05, 2018, 05:45:32 pmA few of them covered here:https://forum.kicad.info/t/when-will-kicad-5-be-available/8563/13

author: a59d1
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 06, 2018, 06:17:15 am
content: Quote from: Warhawk on July 05, 2018, 06:23:42 pmWoohoo!

author: awallin
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 06, 2018, 06:19:20 am
content: Quote from: a59d1 on July 06, 2018, 06:17:15 amexcuse my ignorance and laziness but is there a video or image-sequence somewhere of how wonderful via-stitching is in 5.0? thanks!

author: s8548a
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 06, 2018, 06:46:39 am
content: Quote from: Seph.b on July 05, 2018, 11:37:22 pmNew features in V5 footprints like arbitrary shaped pads and rounded rectangle pads were not backward compatible.and it has covered in detail here:https://forum.kicad.info/t/does-v5-have-to-overwrite-on-install/11282

author: bson
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 06, 2018, 04:17:03 pm
content: Quote from: Seph.b on July 05, 2018, 11:37:22 pmNope. The version isn't part of the library path and the v5 library can't be used with v4.Also, your project will need to be converted, but that's easily managed with git or whatever in case you need to roll back.

author: donotdespisethesnake
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 06, 2018, 06:11:29 pm
content: I wrote up the procedure for installing v5 with v4 on Windows herehttps://github.com/bobc/kicad-doc/wiki/Installing-KiCad-v4-and-v5-side-by-sideI'm sure that the same thing can be achieved on most Unix systems, if not MacOS.I should add the caveat that once you save a project using v5, it becomes more or less difficult to go back and edit the same project in v4.The default official libraries for the v5 release will be quite different to the v4 libs, and you can't use the v5 libs in KiCad v4. However, you can use KiCad v5 with the v4 libraries.

author: Bassman59
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 06, 2018, 10:40:40 pm
content: Quote from: Seph.b on July 05, 2018, 11:37:22 pmYou won't want to go back to the 4.0. The new stuff is really a lot better.

author: bson
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 09, 2018, 05:11:16 pm
content: I really like that I can just drop a component onto a wire have it automatically connect it and trim the wire. Also, the automatic connection management was long overdue. And schematic wire management is greatly improved; you no longer get a ton of little segments, with potential connection (wires and pins one iota apart) issues, and they automatically recombine into single wires. This is basic functionality that you don't think of that mostly just works and when it doesn't it's just a pain in the rear. In v5 it's been a long time for me since ERC came up with anything disconnected, well, that wasn't an actual omission.