BIG THANKS to the devs and helpers.
Love the improvements over v4 (and I was usually running a nightly version).
It’s amazing.
5 Likes
If you want to be truly amazed then switch to current nightly. A lot of the vision already planned for v5 is in there. (So 5.1 will be truly a step forward)
The GUI is so much cleaner. There have been many small productivity things added.
3 Likes
What I use now I downloaded on Dec 15th 2018… so a very recent nightly and am in the middle of a project now, so no changing horses unless something doesn’t work, which * knocking on wood * isn’t the case so far. 
Application: kicad
Version: (6.0.0-rc1-dev-1389-gf452eafcd), release build
Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.0.4
libcurl/7.61.1 OpenSSL/1.1.1 (WinSSL) zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.6 libidn2/2.0.5 libpsl/0.20.2 (+libidn2/2.0.5) nghttp2/1.34.0
Platform: Windows 7 (build 7601, Service Pack 1), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW
Build Info:
wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8)
Boost: 1.68.0
OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.9.1
Curl: 7.61.1
Compiler: GCC 8.2.0 with C++ ABI 1013
1 Like
Ok in that case you are already running nightlies. This explains your amazement. (I think they are already in a kind of feature freeze. So nothing new should appear now. Otherwise not even a pre release is ready for fosdem)
Yeah, the only thing I’m missing right now would be net highlighting in the layout for the copper layers. Everything else is really fabulous.
Is this something else then the highlight net button already present since v4 or is this feature broken in your particular version?
1 Like
<<< problem sits there.
Thx! Totally forgot that button.
consider me 100% over-enjoyed right now. 
By the way it is now possible to do cross highlighting between eeschema and pcb_new. For that activate the highlight net tool in both of them and then highlight a net in either. The other one will then have the net highlighted as well.
1 Like
coohool. Now we’re cooking. Gotta donate some money now.
Is Nightly likely to be stable from now on until 5.1 release? It did go a bit wild soon after 5.0 release
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Nightlies are quite stable since v5. v5.1 is not allowed to have major new features. (other than the gal port of eeschema)
The only changes that happen are to the user interface. The backend only gets bugfixes that are then also ported to v5.0.x
At least this is how i understand the current state of things. For more details we might want to ask the devs.
Version 5.1 is already in feature freeze since 9.12.2018
GUI string freeze will be announced as soon as wayne returns from holiday (probably next week).
Mistakes can happen at any time. Wayne was very vocal about that in this case and it was resolved very fast. (This is one of the risks that will never go away when using nightlies. They are after all development snapshots.)
There is a difference between “A mistake broke something” and “Get in a few more features before feature freeze”. The later was the reason why nighlies near the end of the v5 development cycle where extremely unstable. That is why i stated that nightly is comparably stable since the v5 release. (And especially now that we are in feature freeze.)
1 Like
These little things never happened before in the nightlies that were recommended for new users.
I have limited data bandwidth to keep trying every new tweak to the next 1+ Gig download; and this text is just like a broken record at this point in time.
Sprig, with bandwidth caps, you are the last person who should consider using Nightly builds. There are very few new features in 5.1, it is more there to make the Linux version play nicely with recent distributions.
Right now nobody has a list of recommended Nightly versions
Did you start a recent nightly?
There are loads of changes to the user interface. Including many things i would consider new features.
Some examples are:
- All tools:
- new and improved settings management (one dialog to rule them all.)
- library managers reachable from the main window
- Symbol editor:
- the pin table is now editable (see my how to make a symbol tutorial)
- better editing of alias settings (everything is in one dialog now)
- footprint editor:
- now looks like the symbol editor (No more active library nonsense. Tree-view on the left)
- allows additions to previously forbidden layers (usr.cmts, usr.dwgs, eco1, eco2, …) Sadly edge cuts is still not included.
- Endpoint snap for lines
- pcb_new:
- Single board setup dialog under the file menu (consolidates all things that where in many different dialogs until recently.)
- update from schematic now has the same settings available as netlist import (But still better default settings for most cases)
- DRC check for edge cuts (Checks if it is a closed outline. Even points to the place where the problem is.)
- endpoint snap for polyline tool
- 3d viewer:
- if a footprint has multiple models assigned one can now control the visibility of them separately.
And i am sure there are many more (These are the ones i already noticed just by using nightlies. I did not really use v5.0 for long so it might be that things i take for granted are not really in v5.0.)
5 Likes
Sprig,
You have complained about big download size so many times, you could have learned how to compile KiCad yourself by now.
That way you can just pull tiny source changes from git and never download another KiCad binary again. Just invest into initial checkout of git repo (about 2GB).
Seriously, you should consider doing that if 1Gb download eats sizable portion of your data cap. If you use Win or linux I can help with setting that up if you encounter issues, just open another thread.
Or you can wait until someone finally finishes the work to split the installer into separate pieces but I don’t think it is a priority for devs so you might have to wait a while.
2 Likes
Nice two PCB with - 5 switch regulators 
. The output cap may be hard to reword if it got burn out/decade. Nice art 
Those are Infineon BTS 6133D power switches, high side, Rdson 8 mOhms, 8A/38V, they make them unchanged for 10 years now with nothing appearing that has better specs.
The small cyan colored 1812’ers are 90V GDTs.
This is a power monitoring and controlling board for a centralized supply of electric loads, well, half of it. The brains will plug into the 24 pin header and provide all the coms interfaces for remotely being able to switch the outputs and monitor power draw/faults. But right now I only need the muscle part - so this goes first.
There also are current sensors on there from Allegro (ACS70331) that ‘limit’ the monitoring to 5A per channel (the BTS also has a curent sense output, but that one is not accurate at those low currents I need to know about) and the input plug can handle 30A ‘only’ as well. So overall not a high power device, but probably 5-10 times more than what it will ever be used for in the application intended right now - its good to have head-room 
The ‘hard’ part will be the brains and software anyway…
1 Like