Graphics rendering issue on macbook

Software
1

hi all,

I’m having some weird issues on my MacBook M3 running version 8 of Kicad, where the graphics of parts or footprints do not render, on both the PCB editor and the footprint editor when they are loaded.

the behaviour when I load from the schematic is that the parts come into the board and are selectable, but they are not visible. if I close the board editor and reload it they show up.
when I create a part in the footprint editor the graphics are visible but then when I reload the part or try to load any other part the visible graphics elements disappear… all the nodes are visible in both cases and 3d viewer the footprints show up.

I’m a longtime Windows user of Kicad but I am travelling currently and only have a mac, and was looking for some of the graphics modes to toggle but I can’t seem to find them. not sure they exist on osx or v8 of kicad.

does anyone have any pointers, advice or guidance that could help me without needing to find a Windows PC or remote into my PC that’s very far away?

appreciate any help or suggestions.

mark.

UPDATE:
if I load the part I made onto a board and then open it from there to edit I can work on the footprint, so at least I have a workaround for now, but it’s very strange behaviour.

2

Does this issue describe what you’re seeing? PCB Editor doesn't initially show footprints (#18063) · Issues · KiCad / KiCad Source Code / kicad · GitLab

3

yes, that is exactly the issue I am seeing.

4

If you haven’t already, consider giving that issue a “thumbs up” on gitlab to show that it is also an issue for you. I’m afraid I don’t have anymore useful info for you on how to proceed though. I don’t experience this on a macbook pro with M2Pro processor on MacOS14.4. Are you by chance also on 14.4.1 like the issue report mentions?

5

I fixed the issue by loading the file from Kicad directly and not just clicking on the .pro file.
I seam to have fixed the problem completely by deleting the backup folder, and now it loads both ways fine.

6

I’m glad it is working for you! before the older files get deleted from trash, is it possible you could open an issue (or add to the existing one) and upload them to Gitlab? It seems like a real issue if there’s something project-specific that breaks the renderer. If the files cannot be public, there is an option to share the issue with only the core development te-'.