I am very happy with the addition of real via’s in Kicad 5.
However, when placing there is no clearance circle. Is there some way to active that?
Now I have to run DRC first to check if they are properly spaced.
Check if you are in the modern toolset or legacy and give us this information. (preferences menu should show you with a tickmark which toolset is active.)
It is strange that kicad allows you to place a via with DRC violations. The default setup would be to check DRC during routing (in all canvases, no matter what router you use) So you must have setup kicad to ignore DRC violations somehow.
Check your setup in preferences -> display options
There is a section where you can select when kicad shows clearances. Make sure you select one of the “with via area” options.
If you are in modern toolset, make sure “ignore DRC violation” is not selected in the interactive router settings (found under the router menu)
I have no idea where to find the equivalent setting for the legacy toolset.
While routing it indeed does not allow for placement. However, for all ground via’s or any other via’s that are placed on their own, they are allowed to be placed. Only when you run the DRC the collissions show up. I am using the modern toolset, legacy does not even allow for the new via option.
I wonder if this is because when placing vias using the place via tool, KiCad doesn’t know what net the via will belong to until it is placed and it calculates what net it thinks the user wants it to connect to. Therefore, because KiCad doesn’t know what clearance to use it doesn’t show a clearance?
I’m just guessing here based only on the description of the problem in this thread…
If you use the Highlight collisions mode and drag an existing via it detects violations. So it should be possible to detect them in Shove mode, too, but they are not detected. I would consider this as a bug.
Logically it should be also possible to refuse to place a new via without a net to a place where it would violate any of the surrounding clearances. It gets a net anyways when it’s placed with a mouse click or Enter, so it should be able to test it even before accepting.
That does make sense, but opens up the can of worms of complaints that the “loose via”*1 can’t be placed and the user doesn’t know why. Not sure which can is worse, this current one, or my hypothesized one… 
A feature request might be for KiCad to calculate in real time what net the loose via would connect to and show the clearance ring (and maybe the net name?) while the via is moving around. I worry about performance hits for that though, but I don’t know if this concern is valid.
*1 I’m using the term “loose via” here to be a via dropped onto the board using the “Add vias” (in english) tool. If someone has a better, more descriptive term to use for these to differentiate them from vias dropped during routing, please let me know.
Maybe it could highlight the offending items, just like in Highlight collisions mode. When trying to drop a via flashing them with highlight color would offer a visual clue why it can’t be placed there.
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