Can I run 2 instances of Kicad 6.99 at once?

Schematic
1

I’m running Kicad 6.99 on a Windows 10 PC.

1 - Can I run two instances of Kicad so that I can have two schematics open at the same time and switch back and forth?

2 - If so, I would guess that each schematic would have to be in a separate “Project”… right?

3 - In this case can I copy parts of schematic 1 to schematic 2?

4 - If not, how can I get part of schematic 1 into schematic 2?

Thanks for any help.

2
  1. yes
  2. yes
  3. yes
  4. omitted because 3) was “yes”

But why have you don’t tried this yourself?

remarks to question2:

  • the best way is to use 2times the kicad-manager, with 2 different projects.
  • If you want to look at the same project/schematic just copy the project-directory into another folder
  • you can also use eeschema/pcbnew as standalone-programs. So you don’t have to open a complete project but only a desired schematic.
  • you can also use 2times kicad on the same project/schematic. Kicad will detect this and warn you about “already open files”. As long as you don’t save the second instance this could work and could be used for instance to show different areas of the same schematic/board. But you should know what you do and I would recommend only for experienced users.

I’m running Kicad 6.99 on a Windows 10 PC

Your questions 1…4 sound as if you are new to Kicad. For new users I would recommend the actual stable Kicad-version v6.0.2 (as of 21.02.2022). The v6.99 are the nightly development version and is currently not 100% stable. (for instance the last 3 days the drc led to a crash).

2 Likes
3

Thank you mf_ibfeew. Your info was very helpful.

  • I didn’t try it before asking because I was concerned about what may happen.

  • Now I have 2-instances of Kicad 6.99 running with 2 different schematics and able to copy parts of schematic 1 into schematic 2.

  • I am new to Kicad but switched to 6.99 because another forum member pointed out that it had some additional features I needed.

  • I’m running the Feb15 build and so far no major problems.

Thanks again.

4

Then you probably shouldn’t use the experimental 6.99 builds.

5

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