Hi
On most softwaresites I see a green download button and within a few minutes one can start working with the latest updated vesion. I’m missing such a button on Kicad homepage. I read about builds, old stable and since english is not my motherlanguage, I’m losing track.
Can sombody please tell me in detail what to download and install to get me going.
Is it wurth wile to wait for a next release (date?)
Thank you
If you’re on windows, you can get one of prebuilt installers from Milan Horak: http://kicad.nosoftware.cz/
Thankx Dolganoff
I suppose you referring to this:
KiCad_testing-2015.01.17-BZR5376_Win_full_version.exe 254.4 MB (266765004B) 18 January 2015 11:11:11.
But I also see this: These are intended for testing purposes and could (and probably will) contain bugs.
So are they save to work with (for a beginner)?
I downloaded the stable version 4022 and ran through Chris’ Getting to Blinky tutorial series but rather than ending up with the circuit he was creating, made my own first small PCB. I sent that off to a fab so I had physical confirmation I’d learned something.
Since then I’ve used various versions constructed (like the link above) from nightlies. I’ve found only one so far that was too unstable to be useful. I’ve tended to settle on a version for a while until the KiCad team announce something I wanted to see for myself then upgraded to a later nightly.
Your mileage may vary, but if you save often I think the new features are more than worth the (slightly?) elevated risk.
Cheers ! Geoff
I find these are more than adequate for beginners. Just exercise usual software hygiene (do use some versionning system for your files, like git and do periodic backups), and you’ll be fine.
Sorry for my bad english.this is the first time i ever hear of “nightly” but that i found explained on wikipedia
this I don’t understand?
Is this" 07/07/2013 15:18 207245212 KiCad_stable-2013.07.07-BZR4022_Win_full_version.exe" the best?/only thing i need to download to start?
Revision control, also known as version control and source control (and an aspect of software configuration management), is the management of changes to documents, computer programs, large web sites, and other collections of information. Changes are usually identified by a number or letter code, termed the “revision number”, “revision level”, or simply “revision”. For example, an initial set of files is “revision 1”. When the first change is made, the resulting set is “revision 2”, and so on. Each revision is associated with a timestamp and the person making the change. Revisions can be compared, restored, and with some types of files, merged.
This basically allows to track the changes that were made and go back to any previous revision. You can also create branches to have to different versions besides each other (two PCBs with just some minor differences but a lot of similarities for example). Basically you can see it as an intelligent backup solution with much more capabilities than a simple copy of a file.
Airic
So you never arrived to this page?
Also work is i progress on making proper windows nightlies, I have stashed some initial work, that can get you running with a more recent version.
yes I’ve read that page but as said, my English is not so good. And when I read words like “testing purposes” and “bugs”, I’m not so eager to download.
I believe that a simple green dowload button which leads to the latest stable version would increase the number of Kicad users.
At your link, should I just DL one of the 11 march versions or is there someting more to do. (I’m on Windows 7)
What is the difference withthe earlier versions?
Thank you.
Yes, the one with the latest revision. The integer prefixed with and r. In the future the downloads is to be found on http://downloads.kicad.org/
Also, don’t be scared of the word testing or bugs. They are very positive words in my world.
Download and a simple runtest just completed. the learning may begin 
Thank you all very much.