Beware of some pitfalls there. Solder mask is usually negative, so sending an empty mask layer means “cover everything” while sending no mask might lead to the board house getting back to you on why it’s missing.
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You have been given good advice much earlier on in this thread and now demonstrate that you fully intend to keep ignoring good advice.
Do you know what doesn’t get downloaded with “lite” 5.99 nightly?
I’ve thought about it but it’s usually just easier to fix the occasional new account that needs it.
No, I don’t. To my understanding, the “nightly” thing involves receiving small updates as they are written, and I highly doubt that I understand completely what it is or means. Because of that, is why I would prefer to do it all in one shot. Is there somehow something wrong with that? Does preferring to do it all in one shot mean that I am “ignoring good advice”? I would tend to think not, but if there is something I do not understand, and you are willing to explain it (published explanations of things in detail seem to be fairly scarce around here), that is always much appreciated.
Nightlies are versions that are compiled every day from the latest codebase. You can download just the applications (eeschema, pcbnew, calculator etc) weighing in at around 150MB, just the libraries incl 3d models at around 1.1GB or a combo of applications and libraries at 1.3GB.
Normally, you download the applications and libraries in one go the first time you use a nightly. Then, to try out a newer version, you just need the latest ~ 150MB application download. You can check on GitLab what has changed.
However, when V5 libraries are already present on the system, V5.99 can use the existing libraries. No good reason that I know of to re-download 1GB of files that are already on the hard drive.
Also, note that V5.99 installs separate from V5. It is possible to run both V5 and V5.99 at the same time.
Sure you can use the 5.1.x libraries but the library format has changed in 5.99 and, presumably new development will be on this not on 5.1.
That comment was made several months ago. My experience with a recent V.99 nightly was not exactly as stated in the post.
I appreciate the feedback, as I am using 2 different computers and operating systems and would like to keep things the least corrupted as possible.
I still recommend to only download the “lite” version from the official web site. After that find a source to download the new library elements. These are fairly small in comparison to the 3d packages which are the majority of the 1GB file size; and would be 100% exact duplicates of the files already on the hard drive.
I would really hope there is some method to migrate the V5 libraries to V6. A good many of us have custom libraries that would take significant time to recreate. If there is already a method in place, then there does not seem to be any good reason to download the V6 libraries.
I have not read up much on this, so I reserve the right to be horribly wrong.
I pushed a new version of dxf2kicad_mod
now supports Python3, some usability improvements.
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Did some checking into version 5.99, and it only seems to be available as the nightly. So that prompts the follwoing questions:
- Is my understanding correct that I would only need to download parts or components, and that they would work together with the existing 32 bit version 5.1.9 that is already installed? (upgrade the existing install, so to speak) Or would I have to download all of the parts or components to have the complete version 5.99?
- In addition to the libraries, exactly what additional parts or components would be necessary?
- Is my understanding correct that nothing updates (or downloads) automatically with the nightly?
Correct, and as a nightly, it may cause a KiCad design file to become broken. This is unlikely at this point in time, but it’s software at a critical point in time in development. Your design requirements lead me to suggest that you moving your design to V5.99 is not likely to be a problem for you (at this point in time).
NOTE TO KiCad USERS: Moving to using a nightly build of KiCad has always had some danger of BREAKING a project. However, some prior nightlies have had a more feature set to bug ratio. My recommendation to Golden Age is on based upon a single use case. I do NOT currently recommend V5.99 nightly for the majority of users.
The use of 32 bit versions of KiCad have in the past caused issues for some users with some hardware. How long has it been since 64 Bit processors were a “new thing”?
You have stated that you are not planning on using ANY of these items… So, why the question?
KiCad does not update anything automatically on 32 bit Windoze machines.
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Previously the KiCad Windows installer was available only as one big collection of software and component libraries. The libraries were always bundled in the installer package file. The size of the bundled installer is over 1GB. Most of the size comes from the 3D model library.
Then Qu1ck made an alternative “lite” installer. I doesn’t have the libraries bundled in it, only the software itself. The size of the installer package file is greatly reduced. That lite installer has an option to download the libraries while you are running the installer. If you check the library options – footprints, symbols and 3D models can be ticked on/off – the installer downloads the selected libraries and installs them. If you leave them unchecked they won’t be downloaded.
So, the “lite” installer is almost always enough if the user has an internet connection available at all times. It can also be used later to download the missing libraries if there’s need, although it then re-installs KiCad, too.
KiCad 5.99 doesn’t try to download anything automatically.
If you don’t need the official KiCad libraries you don’t have to download and/or install them. KiCad works perfectly without them, but then you have to either use your own libraries or limit your use of KiCad severely. In you case, if you really want to not use schematics and footprints, you don’t need libraries.
Is everything clear now? Just download the lite installer, either 32- or 64-bit version depending on your platform, and install without choosing the libraries after you have started the installer.
Almost! Your explanation is extremely helpful, but I just want to make sure that I understand everything correctly before I actually do it.
- The lite installer will reinstall KiCAD anyways, and the file size is the same, so there is no reason to choose 32 bit
- Check all the boxes in the installer except for libraries (since they are the bulk of the file size), and the libraries can be downloaded at a later time by running the installer but only downloading the libraries. This will result in a re-install of KiCAD, but it is still not necessary to download anything else except for the libraries
- The version 5.99 lite 64 bit will still run on windoze 7 (64 bit)
Am I correctly understanding everything here? Or am I still overlooking something important?
I only chose 32 bit because of the smaller file size, all my computers are 64 bit processors.
Not at the present time, for the 3 boards that I initially need to make. But of course I will want to experiment with it in the future and learn how to use those features, even if my use of them would be rare (if at all). I also find the 3D modelling features intriguing: my local library has 3D printers available for public use, and this would appear to open up the possibility of producing custom plastic parts (which could potentially be extremely useful in some projects).
And some added stupidity because “a post can’t be empty”.
That’s not a basis for the choice. Basically it’s better to choose 64 bit if it works on your platform. https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/32-bit-vs-64-bit-operating-systems/ or some similar result for 32 bit vs. 64 bit search.
Leave them as they are by default, just check out that the libraries are unchecked.
At the moment, yes, but v6 won’t work on Windows 7 because W7 is unsupported by MS, and for certain practical reasons. If you find a working solution for you, keep the installer package file safe. You may not be able to update to a later version.
So I got the version 5.99, and downloaded everything but the 3D libraries (I’ll have to come back for those after my data cap resets). Opened the pcb file, and went through convert to polygon for all the copper areas on F.Cu. Excellent to see the addition of rotate and mirror features as well! Saved the file, and attempted to view it on the 3D viewer of version 5.1.9. That didn’t work, I got an error saying that it couldn’t open the file from a later version of the program. So then I attempted to check it by exporting as gerber files, and viewing them with Gerbv. Here is what I’m seeing for F.Cu in Gerbv:
(I will continue in the next posting, with a screenshot of the B.Cu layer in Gerbv)
And here is how the B.Cu layer appears in Grebv:
The copper areas on F.Cu were generated by the convert to polygon method. The copper area on B.Cu was generated as a filled zone. There are two things that appear to be wrong.
- The vias appear differently for converted polygons and zones. This implies that one is correct, and the other is not. Should the outlines of the copper areas be converted to polygons, or to zones?
- It has been stated that if the annular ring of a via is enclosed within a larger area of copper (a via is placed within an area of copper that is larger than the annular ring), that the annular ring becomes irrelevant. Yet this does not appear to be the case, the annular ring seems to appear as an area without copper. Is this just how it appears, or is there something wrong here as well?
Thanks for making me aware of that thread, I will be sure to add my comments on it when I have more time to write at length! Definately an interesting read.
Ok, here is an example of one of the challenges of not using a schematic. KiCad will only connect a zone to THT holes (pins and vias), SMT pads, and traces if they are all part of the same net. Because you aren’t using a schematic, you don’t have any nets, so KiCad doesn’t know to connect the copper pour to the annular rings of your vias.
You aren’t seeing the drill hits so you can’t see that the holes will be smaller than the purple circles. The black rings aren’t annular rings, rather they are etched away copper around the annular rings isolating the copper pour of your zone from your vias. I think there might be tools in 5.99 for creating new nets and assigning said nets to features, but I haven’t used 5.99 yet to know the process.
What you would want to see from your descriptions of the bottom side would be a solid purple rectangle.
EDIT: In retrospect, maybe instead of using a zone on the bottom, draw a rectangle around the board just inside your board edge and convert that to a polygon as well. (Or just straight-up draw a filled polygon.)
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It’s a rectangle and 5.99 is used anway, so it can be a filled Rectangle which is a bit easier to draw than a polygon. But zone can’t work as SembazuruCDE explained. Because there’s just copper without nets in the other side it would short-circuits nets anyway, so everything must be just copper.
Why not use the 3D viewer and Gerbview of V5.99 if you have that installed ???
Gerbv, are you certain of that?
Gerbv is a gerber viewer and part of the GEDA project, which is completely unrelated to KiCad.
KiCad’s gerber viewer is Gerbview.
It can be useful to use different gerber viewers to check for (possible) differences / bugs. If this is the reason for using gerbv, then also have a look at online viewers such from Ucamco:
https://html.duckduckgo.com/html?q=ucamco+reference+gerber+viewer