We can’t win here 
The empty space is used for all other status messages: the network path thing (Windows only), logs when you archive projects etc.
I fail to see why it is useful to put the project name in three different locations in the project window:
I also find the minimum width of the browser window and the other pane far to wide. My preference is to be able to make it as narrow as I want it to be. Even if the whole window is so narrow that only the column of icons is visible.
I do see some merit in the whole path name being visible (And selectable, copy-able, etc). It does have a tooltip with the full pathname, but it’s not selectable.
Another issue is the confirmation for if KiCad is already running:
I see some use for it, but most often it’s just unnecessary mouse movements and clicks.
Having this info in the status bar (Or in an “info bar”) would still give feedback, but without the extra clicks.
Now apparently the path is abbreviated because half the width of the screen is reserved for something else. I’d think making the status bar on the bottom two lines high is a better choice.
There is also one less icon on the left side (Top on KiCad V5.1). The “New Project from Template …” icon is missing. It is also an empty spot in the menu:
For those who do not know:
An “Info bar” is the yellow text (usually on top?)
Unfortunately this can’t be fixed until v7, it’s a todo item
We aren’t trying to give all menu items a icon. In fact it’s a mistake that KiCad has ever attempted to do so. No other software does this and its a giant amount of work to maintain
The explanatory text in italics to the right of the icons is really overdoing it, is repetitive and takes up too much space. If anything this text should go into a popup item, not clutter up the everyday view of the program. (It is text that is really not helpful to anyone but a first time user the very first time he/she encounters the program.)
I agree with @eelik that it is best to truncate the end of the path rather than the current ellipsis that takes out the very information that is important for me to see.
Also I like to repeat my suggestion to gray out the path if it is not updated and use the whole space for the path instead of using half for the the mostly useless ‘Local path: …’ message. It could be supplemented with a small gray network icon that is displayed in front of the the grayed out path whenever the path is on a networked drive and folder not updated. With this icon appearing and disappearing with the grayed out path it would make it clear why it is grayed out.
It’s possible that in future versions, this screen is mostly used as a getting-started screen rather than the “main” KiCad window
Besides, it used to be a big empty box. The explanatory text takes up space that would not go to anything else, so why not help out new users? You can always resize the window to hide it if you want.
I can’t find anything in the issue tracker or the roadmap about future plans for the logging window. I have always thought that it was a big patch of nothing very useful. I am sure it could be used more effectively as a sort of project dashboard - and could reflect the project status, revision dates, basic board parameters, ERC/DRC errors etc.
It would also be very useful to have the project level available for Python scripting. For instance, I have a board version control diff program - it would be great to be able to launch this sort of function from within the project manager.
Happy to register something on the tracker for discussion unless there is already a plan (and avoid more bikeshedding).
Sometimes ideas about the future are just tossed around in casual conversation long before they are put into GitLab issues. They are just ideas, after all.
There are reasons to consider just integrating the project management stuff into Eeschema and Pcbnew, versus expanding the capabilities of the project manager window. Nothing is decided here, more planning needs to be done.
The logging window was removed because today it is not doing anything useful. If new features are desired later, we can determine how to implement them (and where) without any kind of pre-conception that there is this big text box and thus it should be used.
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Part of the reason for this thread was to save space. In its current state, if the window is resized so that italicized text is cut in a way that looks pretty unprofessional. My point is that the italicized text does not really add much information over the bold faced text. It is just a more wordy version of it, mostly adding the word “project” to the boldfaced text. The only one that I find brings in more real information is the one for Convert, but that one could be remedied by boldfacing the text “Convert Bitmap” instead. To me the italicized text is clearly a text that looks like it belongs in a popup.
I really think we need to keep the project manager. Otherwise the burden is going to be on the desktop to contain icons to launch every single (or most) KiCad applications. With running different versions that quickly will clutter the desktop or whatever menu system is used to launch KiCad. The project manager is really useful when running multiple instances of KiCad.
This is a viewpoint formed around how KiCad works today. I’m thinking beyond that, to a future KiCad that supports having multiple documents open at once, etc.
Eeschema already has a toolbutton to launch Pcbnew and vice versa. There is not that much need from a UX point of view to have a whole application that is just responsible for opening other applications. Most of the reason for the KiCad project manager existing is due to the technical implementation. Future versions of Eeschema and Pcbnew will likely support having multiple documents open at once (it’s a highly-desired feature) and so will likely also include project trees to navigate and open documents.
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I think the new design looks great.
I wonder though if the new italic text is enough to go back to nouns for the larger text, and historic names for Eeschema, PCBNew and GerbView?
(But I’m a history buff, so maybe I’m odd.)
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What do you envision that the icon on the desktop is going to point to? Would there be a single application icon or multiple desktop icons?
Being able to keep multiple project open at a time would be nice. Keep in mind though that it would not solve the problem of keeping multiple versions running at a time for testing purposes.
That would have to be figured out (there are already multiple desktop icons today though, since you can launch eeschema and pcbnew standalone)
In V7 we plan to fix all the remaining issues with having multiple versions running at a time
If people are really attached to the idea of having some separate floating window with buttons to open other tools, we could always make a “micro view” of the launcher that collapses to just the buttons and takes up minimal space.
They are in the start menu on Windows, but only one icon installed on he desktop.
Yes a microlauncher would be nice. The question is still about where the single icon on the desktop is going to point to.
Who knows we are a year+ away from v7. Priority is to get v6 complete
I would also prefer nouns, but just “Schematic”, “PCB Design”, “Footprint Libraries”, “Gerber Viewer”. The most common complaint I’ve heard from people who tried KiCad some time ago is how it is a bunch a separate programs barely held together. With cross probing and many other improvements that really hasn’t been an issue for some time. But I think it’s better not to give people the wrong impression about the number one complaint on the net, by showing them all the internal names as the first thing they see 
I’m going to link my post that didn’t get split here about changing the layout based on whether a project is loaded or not: My Current Take on the New V6 Icons
I think that’d much friendlier than showing a message box after clicking on “Schematic”.
That’s what Cadence has.
I am kind of sad to see the big empty white area go away.
In it’s current stat it was not useful, but it had a promise of some future functionality.
Some things that could have gone into that box:
- File preview (schematic / PCB)
- Project notes (text file)
- General error messages / status
A logical solution would also be to make it look sort of like a file browser window in “icon” mode. In that way it has the icons for Eeschema, Pcbnew, etc, but also the icons from the files in the project directory.
A possible solution for the long path names:
They can be shown in the pane on the left in a “tree” view kind of way, so each sub directory is one line of text. To keep it compact, not all directories on sub levels are displayed, but just the path to the current project.
Here a screen mock-up, made in a drawing program:
I’ve drawn a red box around the “current active project”. That can be improved I think.
This could also be expanded to browsing to another directory, and making another project active. In that case, show the directory listing of the “deepest” current level, and another project could then be made active by double clicking on a KiCad project directory, or KiCad project file.
Also: Some time ago I did an experiment with hierarchical “multi PCB” projects and it seemed to work. In short, Each PCB has it’s own project (all in the same directory), but there is also a “mother’ project”. which does not have a PCB itself, but has hierarchical sheets to the other project files. This is officially “not supported” (as far as I know) but similar functionality has been requested multiple times on this user forum. It would be nice if changes to the project manager are made with (growing in the direction of something like this.
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It would be pretty simple to make the area tabbed.
- Tool buttons
- Debug output (stderr/stdout)
- The old message view
- etc.
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We plan to support these kinds of things in the future, however it is independent of the project manager GUI itself. The GUI will just follow the underlying design, and we should be flexible to consider if a more complicated and feature-full “project manager” GUI is really the right approach.
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