is there a list to read about main things which has changed between v8 and v9?, i’m about to eventually upgrade soon, even more truly if someone tell about the main benefits with that, what is the revolutionary new hopefully better stuff in v9 or also tell if some things is not better in v9 , thanks
thanks for fast replies! would also be nice to hear from users who have switched (upgraded) and now have used v9 for a while what they think about it, is there is “no going back” etc what is the main benefits and so on…
There is no going back, Once a file is save using V9, you cannot open it with an earlier version (so V8 in your case).
But the change is not massive, you just have some new function / options that you will start use use slowly, but the overall it is working just as V8 so you will not get lost.
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I’ve been using v9 since 9.0.1 and I’ve not yet seen any reason for me to want to go back
i could not go back to any version without kicad jobsets!
I have not switched to V9 yet.
I think “Jobsets” could be the important reason for me to move to V9.
I suppose/hope (can’t confirm it now) that they solve the problem of continuous setting output checkboxes between generating gerbers and generating svg. Whenever I finish PCB I output gerbers and then I generate svg files for documentation. PCB is saved with checkboxes set for svg so if I get next revision of this PCB I have to set these checkboxes twice once more.
I also suppose that with V9 I will not have to go with svg outputs to inkscape just to use 3 hotkeys (select all, match sheet to picture, save).
What’s stopping me from moving to V9?
According to what I have read at forum in Plot dialog box checkboxes: Plot footprint values and Plot reference designators disappeared.
I have made my decisions of how my footprints should look like with KiCad V4 and the best way to get documentation pictures I want I found was to have Value and Reference at Courtyard layer. All my 300 footprints are defined that way. I want one picture with references and one with values. I was using these checboxes for it.
I will have to:
- make new decision (can be bigger problem than second point),
- modify all my footprints.
If V9 would add new layers pairs (but not depending on settings under PCB but being pair by default) then my decision would be easy. Now I spend free time thinking if I can opt out of any of the generated files and each time I get to conclusion that I can’t (one is for contract manufacturer, second is for hand soldering). So I thing which layer pair to use. I consider Fab (by throwing pictures from there to may be User1 layer) or Adhesive (I have never used them and probably will never use).
Edit.
While writing this post it occurred to me that I should check if in V9 the ‘Plot footprint text’ checkbox was preserved or disappeared also. If it is there I could use Silk layer (but will have to change all lines there from 0.12 to 0.05 so as not to obscure the image).
I am still on KiCad V8 myself, but the only reason for this is that my Linux version is getting a bit old now, and it does not support V9.
For the rest. I’ve got a bit of a feeling that there were a bit more bugs in the introduction of V9 then in other versions (It’s common for KiCad to introduce quite a lot of minor bugs when a new mayor version is released). But that was now half a year ago and many of them have been fixed by now.
For the rest, this question does not make much sense to me. You can ask other peoples opinions, but they will all differ. Some like to jump on V9.0.0, knowing it probably has plenty of minor bugs. Other only transition to V9 after V10.0.0 has been released, as they prefer stability above new features. There is also already a link to the release notes, (with quite a lot of new features), and nobody else knows which are the important features for you.