KiCad 6 is coming! (has arrived!!)

[Cerebus]

Looks like 6.0.0 has been tagged in the source repository, I'm compiling it as I write this post. The master branch has already been switched to version "6.99.0". Libraries and 3D models were also tagged, I've already downloaded and installed them.

I'm guessing all that's left is writing the announcement

I'm not sure whether that's good or not. It all depends whether it's being done because there's been a lot of progress in a short time, or because people are rushing to reach an arbitrary "by Christmas" milestone. I used RC1 in ernest to do a couple of boards last week (neither still quite finished, I gave up on my arbitrary "before Christmas" milestone  ) and found a lot of bugs, including crashes, that had reappeared or freshly appeared. To my shame, I didn't get the time to report them. I grabbed RC2 1 to 2 days ago and haven't had time to give it a workout yet so it might have improved greatly; then again it may not have. I do hope that the 6.0 tagged version is good and not a victim of deadlineitis and that we don't find ourselves waiting for 6.0.1 with bated breath.

[Doctorandus_P]

KiCad V6 is not going to be here before crhistmas.
Expectancy currently is "in the first few weeks of 2022.
A few days ago the "kicad-nighly" repository for my Linux box changed from V5.99 to V6.9 and at the moment this means for me that I can not run V6.0.0-rc2 without hacking into the package management. I could focus on this as a (temporary) annoyance, but it's also a clear sign that a stable V6.0 is real close now.

Good things come to those who wait.

[rolycat]

You can install an unannounced and potentially still under construction V6 on Ubuntu/Mint Linux as follows:

Code: [Select]

sudo add-apt-repository --yes ppa:kicad/kicad-6.0-releases
sudo apt update
sudo apt install --install-recommends kicad


[nigelwright7557]

Using freshly produced code isnt always sensible.

I am an insider with Microsoft and have had Win 11 for many months now.
Loads of crashes and freezes to start with.
Its got better recently though.

Same for Visual Studio, the buggers took out winforms for c++, had to fight tooth and nail to get it put back in.
Then they took out publishing single/multiple files from solution explorer FFS !
We have been around the loop 3 times now with it being removed, put back in, removed again !

Then got into python websites. After 2 weeks of trying it wont publish the python project to AWS.
Have to zip up files instead and deploy them myself.

If you value your projects/sanity stick to older well tested software.

[PlainName]

Using freshly produced code isnt always sensible.

Seems like using freshly produced Microsoft code is never sensible. Which is not news, and is rather source-specific.

[ataradov]

That nightly (v6-rc2) PPA is pretty stable at this point. Most of the updates that are happening now there are to the libraries.

I'd say if you are waiting for V6 to start using KiCad, it is perfectly fine to start with the nightly at this point.

[rolycat]

As thinkfat pointed out, the nightlies are now from the new master branch, V6.99, and will increasingly diverge from a stable version 6.00.

The version installed from kicad-6.0-releases as I described earlier is reporting the following:

Version: 6.0.0-d3dd2cf0fa~116~ubuntu20.04.1, release build

Looks like KiCad 6 to me...

[ataradov]

The latest nightly from http://ppa.launchpad.net/kicad/kicad-dev-nightly/ubuntu is "6.0.0-rc2-unknown-160328abc7~144~ubuntu21.10.1, release build" built on Dec 20 2021 21:03:28.

[rolycat]

The latest nightly from http://ppa.launchpad.net/kicad/kicad-dev-nightly/ubuntu is "6.0.0-rc2-unknown-160328abc7~144~ubuntu21.10.1, release build" built on Dec 20 2021 21:03:28.

No, it isn't. I've just installed the latest nightly using the following commands:

Code: [Select]

sudo add-apt-repository --yes ppa:kicad/kicad-dev-nightly
sudo apt update
sudo apt install kicad-nightly
The version reported is:

Version: 6.99.0-a9ca49a600~144~ubuntu20.04.1, release build
Date: Dec 23 2021 15:10:40

[ataradov]

This is strange. I had it installed for a while, but now "apt-get update" / "apt-get upgrade" gives me the version I copied earlier. And the most recent couple updates only contained libraries.

Not sure what is going on.

But also, I'll just install the release one anyway. Nightly served its purpose for me.

[nuclearcat]

The latest nightly from http://ppa.launchpad.net/kicad/kicad-dev-nightly/ubuntu is "6.0.0-rc2-unknown-160328abc7~144~ubuntu21.10.1, release build" built on Dec 20 2021 21:03:28.

No, it isn't. I've just installed the latest nightly using the following commands:

Code: [Select]

sudo add-apt-repository --yes ppa:kicad/kicad-dev-nightly
sudo apt update
sudo apt install kicad-nightly
The version reported is:

Version: 6.99.0-a9ca49a600~144~ubuntu20.04.1, release build
Date: Dec 23 2021 15:10:40

I guess better to stick to "sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kicad/kicad-6.0-releases" now
Several people reported "6.99 problem" on nightly.

[djsb]

Version 6.00 is being released next week, and so the nightly version has been changed to version 6.99 (version 7). This is the case with both the windows and linux flavours (I download both). There is a freeze on the V6.0 version at the moment, so any bug fixes happen in version 6.99. There will be a 6.01 release later.

[Quarlo Klobrigney]

Mine comes up as 6.99.0-a9ca49a600~1344~ubuntu20.04.1.release build

[JohanH]

I've been using 5.99/6.0 from Fedora nightly copr repository for several months. I noticed that it changed to 6.99 three days ago and had to downgrade to latest 6.0, because I don't want to mess up my system again (had some issues with library locations etc. moving from 5.0 to 6.0 earlier, but not sure if it could happen again). And doing like this I guess shouldn't be hard to move to the official 6.0 version later when it becomes available. I will probably not move to next version before late in its development stage.

So on Fedora the last 6.0 is kicad-nightly-6.0.0-1.20211220git160328a.fc35.x86_64. After that it changed to 6.99.

I've had some occasional crashes when manually adjusting/moving tracks (but it was some weeks ago). Other than that, love the new 6.0 version.

[MadScientist]

I’ve been using V6 RC2 for a few days.  Very nice. Found a few funnies ( a cap only showing one rat nest line but when you routed it appeared )

[delfinom]

Fair warning, anyone on the "nightly" branch (any kicad that displays 6.99 now) is already getting 7.0 changes, the file format has already changed and more work is coming down the pipe.


6.0 releases are available for windows, mac and flatpak. The ubuntu ppa think has packages too. Every other linux distro isn't maintained by kicad so it'll land when the distro maintainers get to it.

[djsb]

Just downloaded V6.00
Now I have V6 and V6.99 nightly so I can compare new features. I'll only be using V6 for any manufactured boards though.

[PlainName]

already getting 7.0 changes, the file format has already changed

Why do the file formats keep changing? One of the nice things about Altium is the backwards and forwards compatibility - I've used the '09 viewer to view '21 files and it works. Complains about new things it doesn't know about and outputs a list of them, but shows the essentials just fine. And, of course, the latest version opens the most ancient without quibbling.

I could understand it a format change happened once a decade or so, but every version? Suggests someone has not just dropped the ball but is dribbling with it.

[ataradov]

Why do the file formats keep changing?

File format includes generating KiCad version. Even if nothing changes each major version will have a "unique" format. This might change in the release if no actual changes to the format happen.

Edit: Although it looks like it does not include the version of the creating software, but rather a version of the file format as a date. So, current v6 format for PCB is "20211014" and for the schematics "20211123". So if version changes, there must be some changes in the data that will not be understood by older versions.

New versions import old formats without issues. Sure, this creates some inconvenience for users of older versions of the software, but intervals between major versions are not that short in this case, you have plenty of time to update.

And for v6 formats absolutely had to change, as there were massive improvements. And for the schematic format had changed entirely, making it more like PCB format.

You can make an argument for more flexible fields that can be dropped by software versions that don't understand them, but in practice it will inevitably mean that older versions will not read full data. Sure, they may open it somewhat, but it will not be full data, which rarely makes sense.

[delfinom]

already getting 7.0 changes, the file format has already changed

Why do the file formats keep changing? One of the nice things about Altium is the backwards and forwards compatibility - I've used the '09 viewer to view '21 files and it works. Complains about new things it doesn't know about and outputs a list of them, but shows the essentials just fine. And, of course, the latest version opens the most ancient without quibbling.

I could understand it a format change happened once a decade or so, but every version? Suggests someone has not just dropped the ball but is dribbling with it.

Well file format change here is not a significant change. It's just there already have been numerous things added such as graphic line dash styles for PCB lines. This requires new flags being added to the PCB file format. The overall semantics however aren't changing anymore (i.e. we are sticking to sexpr).

We have no interest in forwards compatibility. It is a rabbit hole of "what ifs" and PCB design issues due to the software can be a big deal. Backwards compatibility we are committed to handling.

Just downloaded V6.00
Now I have V6 and V6.99 nightly so I can compare new features. I'll only be using V6 for any manufactured boards though.

Nothing super significant yet but there are already new DRC features, new graphic line styles for PCBs, etc
Changes are being posted here by Jeff who was working on most of these features while the rest of were tasked with preparing for a 6.0 release:
https://forum.kicad.info/t/post-v6-new-features-and-development-news/32633

There's definitely some merge requests that'll get merged in the next month or so that'll be of interest, namely
-Support for any font you want under the sun in the schematic and pcb editor
-3dconnexion mouse support (contributed by 3dconnexion) for Windows and macOS

[PlainName]

OK, thanks. I accept that forward compatibility can be a maze of twisty passages, although it's not impossible as Altium shows. However, there is the small matter of lots of money being involved to upgrade with Altium, whereas Kicad is zero cost (other than potential compatibility issues) so there is little reason not to upgrade anyway.

Season's greetings, BTW. And thanks for the Xmas prezzy

[ataradov]

-Support for any font you want under the sun in the schematic and pcb editor

How would that work? Does it mean TTF fonts? Do you embed the font somehow? What happens if the font is not present on the opening machine?

[delfinom]

-Support for any font you want under the sun in the schematic and pcb editor

How would that work? Does it mean TTF fonts? Do you embed the font somehow? What happens if the font is not present on the opening machine?

https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/merge_requests/613

TTF yes.

embedding/font presence issues TBD and honestly the footnote part of all the development

[Karel]

The KiCad project is proud to announce the release of version 6.0.0.

https://www.kicad.org/blog/2021/12/KiCad-6.0.0-Release/

[bateau020]

For those on MacOS: the readme has not yet been updated, and mentions 2 directories to copy. That is no longer true: /Library/ApplicationSupport/Kicad is no longer used (and you can delete it). The libs/models are now stored in /Application/Kicad/Kicad.app and fetched automatically once you set up the paths.
For all migrating from 5.1x to 6.0: If you use 3D View, you will probably want to add a path to the preferences: KISYS3DMOD should point to wherever KICAD6_3DMODEL_DIR points to. This way your old boards will be able to show 3D models.