Time is going by, and kicad is getting better.
Release Candidate 1 for kicad 5.0 is expected at the end of this month.
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Though the date of Jan 27 2018 may get delayed due to Meltdown and Spectre.
Once the v5 RC1 is out, it might be best for new users to consider going with the new stuff.
The final v5 release is many months out.
Many improvements from v4, the list below was scraped from?
? ?
where one post says:
? "I think v5 is 95% the same as v4, but the 5% includes symbol library tables, which is a significant difference."
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v5 brings a lot new features. Some of them hidden from the user. (better algorithms for DRC, polygon filling, ...)
The visible features will include (but are not limited to):
- sym lib table (allows sym lib management similar to fp libs)
- official libs are now only 3 repos. (This does break the github plugin. But allows for easier version control) There is also a new lib download page included in the kicad webside.
- new symbol editor (with lots of new features)
- show electrical type of pins next to the pin
- easy copy paste of symbols between libs
- lib tree view included in the editor
- automatic junction management + better connection algorithm (eeschema)
- Line styles for graphical polygons in eeschema
- schematic simulation
- cleanups of the graphical interface
- net highlighting in eeschema
- new component chooser. (adding symbols to a schematic will allow to select footprints at the same time.)
- one click tool for update pcb from schematic
- settings for differential pair spacing and with
- python action plugin (allows adding python scripts to the tool menu)
- graphic polygons in pcb new and footprint editor (not only for zones)
- rounded rectangle pads and polygon pads
- flip board (look at it from the bottom)
- Better support for OSX (Lots of interface features added to work around the quirks of this operating system. Like having a single button mouse)?
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Jerry, KE7ER
On Tue, Jan 16, 2018 at 09:46 am, Jerry Gaffke wrote:
Kicad has it's warts but is under active development.
I expect it to get better as time goes by.
