KiCad 5.1.5 released, plus interview with KiCad lead programmer Wayne Stambaugh

[bonedog32]

Am not sure this is the correct place for this, but here goes: I recently upgraded from Fedora 28 to Fedora 31 and installed KiCad 5.1.5-1.fc31 release build.
However, now I get an error message when I attempt to load a pcb from before saying I need a later version of KiCad. Is there another 'later' version? I don't remember what version I was running on FC28 but it was before the 5.1.5 version for sure. Not sure how to fix this. Any help or direction to proceed would be helpful.
Further, I get another error in same message: Unexpected "max_error" in input/source...line 54, offset 6. That line happens to be "(max_error 0.005)
In FC28 this board has been checked and had gone to production, so there was nothing wrong with the file itself.
Thanks in advance,
Bonedog32.

[bonedog32]

Well, here is an interesting development. I took a backup copy of the same pcb file and renamed it to the problematic file. It loaded fine...go figure! So now after saving, everything seems to be working fine, and the 3D parts are all in place. Don't we just love computers? 

[Construct]

I gave KiCad 5.1.5 a try this month. This is my first time with KiCad, so I'm operating with a blank slate.

It's definitely not at the same level as the four and five figure EDA packages, but I've been pleasantly surprised so far.

Once you get past some of the UI/UX quirks, it's reasonably enjoyable to use for basic designs. I'm glad to see they have a roadmap and full time staff pushing it in the right direction.

[MitjaN]

A thing to keep in mind when working with open source tools is that since the code and file formats are open it is very likely that someone has already made a solution for feature that is missing in base program. KiCad is no different in this regard. A good start is a list of third party tools https://github.com/xesscorp/kicad-3rd-party-tools.