KiCad 9.0.0 released!

[Karel]

https://www.kicad.org/blog/2025/02/Version-9.0.0-Released/

[SiliconWizard]

Yep, I just upgraded.

- Trying to figure out the "Multi-channel design" feature, which I used to do by createing hierarchichal blocks in schematics and duplicating them (from a single schematic file), which I think is still the way it works, but for layout, I used the "replicate layout" plugin. I guess KiCad 9 now includes that without the need for a plugin.

- The "component class" thing looks useful.

- Design blocks.

And a bunch of other new features. Looks like a pretty significant upgrade.

[Smokey]

https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-4152-kicad-project-status/

[blackfin76]

Just installed KiCad for the first time. Coming from OrCad and Altium, wish me luck 

[hpw]

Just installed KiCad for the first time. Coming from OrCad and Altium, wish me luck 

May use https://gitlab.com/groups/kicad/-/milestones/ to see what's going on 

While usual, some updates to wait, until using it for any important project(s) ... see V7 or V8   

[SiliconWizard]

Has anyone used KiCad 9 already?

I upgraded and worked on one project with it so far. Unsurprisingly for early major versions, it has, well, bugs.
What I've found so far:
- Clicking on pins doesn't always trigger the "wire" mode. It seems temperamental. And yes, all pins are grid-aligned. But I suspect some bug introduced by changes in how KiCad deals with the grid.
- More severe: cut-and-paste often doesn't work. For instance, cut some parts on one sheet and paste them on another sheet: the paste doesn't paste anything. You need to undo the cut to get the cut block back, and try again.
- Moving large symbols (with many pins) is slowish. Not a deal breaker, but annoying.

I'm sure there are many more issues that I haven't run into yet.

What's your experience with it?

[Picuino]

Have they finally added a tool for PCB panelization?

[Smokey]

Have they finally added a tool for PCB panelization?

That's what the board shop is for.  Quit trying to take those poor people's jobs!

[Karel]

I upgraded and worked on one project with it so far. Unsurprisingly for early major versions, it has, well, bugs.
What I've found so far:
- Clicking on pins doesn't always trigger the "wire" mode. It seems temperamental. And yes, all pins are grid-aligned. But I suspect some bug introduced by changes in how KiCad deals with the grid.
- More severe: cut-and-paste often doesn't work. For instance, cut some parts on one sheet and paste them on another sheet: the paste doesn't paste anything. You need to undo the cut to get the cut block back, and try again.
- Moving large symbols (with many pins) is slowish. Not a deal breaker, but annoying.

You can help improving KiCad by filing bug reports:

https://www.kicad.org/help/report-an-issue/

[SiliconWizard]

Yes. Now, most of the above annoyances may come from wxWidgets rather than KiCad itself, and I'm on Wayland, which wxWidgets still has some issues with. Not sure it's even really supported officially to use KiCad on Wayland, so all of us on Wayland are likely to be nicely told to uh... you know.

One bug I just ran into that doesn't look like one of these GUI issues though is the following:
- Importing constraints in the PCB editor from another PCB layout (made with KiCad v7 for that matter). Half the constraints are incorrectly imported, some set to 0.

[Karel]

I'll only switch to wayland when it's necessary or when I'm forced to. Why switching early and risk possible bugs...
Fortunately, my distro still uses xorg by default.