I heard chris on the amphour mention that the next stable release will be sometime in july, but i can’t find any information on this. Also does anyone know if an updater application will ever be bundled with KiCad? Instead of having to go out online and download the latest build just run an updater within KiCad to update to the latest nightly build.
This is my first topic on this forum so Hello World! Im also a new user to KiCad but love it so far.
Thanks.
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There have been a few hiccups due to the 3D viewer. You can subscribe to the developer mailing list if you’re looking for up-to-the-minute details about the status (though I always remind people not to post user issues to the mailing list, just developer issues). AFAIK, it should be sometime this month still, but there is quite a bit of month left.
Thanks so much Chris, I really wish they would post to their blog more often (if at all, I think its still empty) to give us some idea of where they are and what is still being worked on (or maybe thats in the dev mail list), and when to expect releases.
They are always looking for help with the blogging and more social aspects, so if you or anyone else is interested, that’s worth posting about on the dev list (or email the project lead Wayne directly)
There’s a blog?
Having a scheme to provide users with messages regarding updates and other things has been discussed a number of times but the release will not ship with such a feature. My guess is that after the release all the contributors will be busy with other big tasks and the messaging feature will be forgotten again. To get anything happening in that domain I’d say we need someone who will work on it and provide the big plan detailing the design and features and the mechanism for retrieving messages - including the scheme for translations. Such a scheme might even provide for automatic bug reporting if the software crashes. The other thing of course is that a server somewhere will need to be set up to provide the messages (and post automated bug reports) so there’s the question of how to set up a server so that it’s available etc.
http://www.kicad.org/pages/viewrecentblogposts.action?key=KICAD
This is what im referring to, they have it but im not sure if they know it or care to use it.
But in reference to the server issue, is it not possible to use something like github public repository then just have a program that checks for patches and updates there? Im not sure how much youre familiar with all of this, I definitely think that might go a long way towards adoption.
If they were able to get everyones kicad app updated to the same version and for it to be consistent and not have the user go off to the nightly build page to download and reinstall (im assuming thats what you have to do ive never tried before) then that might help it be more user friendly.
Regarding the blog. What do you expect to read there? What detail level and so on?
But on the other hand a new site not based on the unstable Confluence setup is slightly in the works.
I hope it’s something very simple, like wordpress 
What to expect to read on there? Some suggestions:
- obvious link (not hidden deep somewhere) to the bug tracker
- link to the mailing list(s) / groups
- separate pages for docu / downloads (quick to reach & find, without drilling through 10E3 pages)
- some sort of rough timetable (“next release in 2 months”)
- links to demo projects, image galleries (flickr / ipernity…), parts, libs, 3D models, videos…
- link to THIS place
and so on.
Not sure if a separate kicad wiki is necessary, might be useful for documentation purposes.
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See @madworm’s reply, something thats not difficult to find that has a rough time line of expected features. Things that are in the works, basically just a quick and easy reference to find useful information instead of trying to hunt for it.
It’s not, it’s all using Confluence by Atlassian. Note how similar the base template from Atlassian and the KiCad site are.
While not the intent of this post, if people are interested in writing content immediately, there is a Wordpress site at kicad.info, though it’s only serving static (and boring) pages right now.
I can’t resist the temptation to bump this up the list. I admit I don’t subscribe to the developer mailing list as Chris suggested, but I’m not sure I’d be able to make head or tail of the mails anyway.
Any inside scoop?
Still some time left, a bit out of context, see:
[…] It looks like we have some time since there are a few segfault bugs that need to be addressed. […]
– https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/msg19597.html
You don’t have to actually subscribe - just click on the link Chris provided and you can see the list. There are only a few messages a day so it’s easy to keep on top of what’s going on. Last talk about a release was towards the end of last month, but it looks like there are still some outstanding issues to be addressed.
This comment is in the hopes that somebody new looks at this post so the number of views increments from the number of the beast.
I’m looking for a KiCad road map. It this posted, or for developer eye’s only? Also, I’m trying to find out what the plans are for OS support regarding Mac and Windows. I ask because I’m a linux user but teach intro to KiCad classes from time to time and the mac and windows builds are hit or miss. I can’t find good feedback on what builds are the most stable to point class attendees to. This would also help me determine when the best time is for getting a class together.
I’m using the build from about a month ago or so, and in my experience it has done the job well without issue. I was able to successfully create a schematic, custom library, custom schematic symbols and footprints, layout the board in pcbnew without issue and actually get PCB’s manufactured (as of right now I’ve had three different PCB’s manufactured using this version of kicad). I haven’t even tried the Mac version but it’s been about a year or so since I last tried. I would say windows is probably good to go though.
Although currently there still is no official release.
The plan of folks at CERN are here:
Generic work plans (in various states of progress and disuse) are here:
There was another site largely in disuse but I can’t find it now - anyway it’s probably forgotten.
Within the source code there is the file:
Documentation/development/road-map.md
Thanks, this helps a ton!
It seemed the Windows version was working as well as the Linux version, however the Mac version with build 6091 had more bugs than I could list in this email. It worked for the most part but many of the features did not. Things like save block, create using a template, read netlist, etc… makes it hard to persuade people to consider KiCad. Do get me wrong, a year ago building from source was the only solution, and the results were much less enjoyable… At least it looks like it is going in a better direction from a Mac point of view. Now I just need to see if there is a group that is focused on the Mac side. I contact Adam Wolf, yesterday, so I should check my email.
Thanks Andy, Im in the process of writing up a few bug reports. My intention was to find a stable release for both Mac and Windows that I could use for teaching a intro class. So far I’m still on the hunt.