KiCad 8.0 crashes when opening PCB or SCH from KiCad Project file

[maestroque]

What I have tried:

• initially i was on v7, and upgraded to v8
• clean reinstall of v8, including deletion of AppData files
• Windows Update
• Graphic Drivers were up to date
• Removing Python from path before reinstalling

Do you have any recommendations? Is there any extra info needed? Thanks

[RaptorUK]

@maestroque

Is there any extra info needed?

Please post your full KiCad version information . . . you can copy it from Help > About KiCad > Copy Version Info

[maestroque]

Here it is:

Application: KiCad x64 on x64

Version: 8.0.1, release build

Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.2.4
FreeType 2.12.1
HarfBuzz 8.3.0
FontConfig 2.14.2
libcurl/8.5.0-DEV Schannel zlib/1.3

Platform: Windows 11 (build 22631), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW

Build Info:
Date: Mar 15 2024 01:52:47
wxWidgets: 3.2.4 (wchar_t,wx containers)
Boost: 1.83.0
OCC: 7.7.1
Curl: 8.5.0-DEV
ngspice: 42
Compiler: Visual C++ 1936 without C++ ABI

Build settings:

[mf_ibfeew]

The version information looks good, and there is no issue known which generally produces a crash at loading a schematic/pcb file.

• Does the crash happen with all your projects?
• Does the crash also happen with downloaded projects from the internet? (you could try example projects from gitlab, for instance selecting tracks: insonsistent selection behaviour (#17299) · Issues · KiCad / KiCad Source Code / kicad · GitLab)
• Does the crash also happen with the original Kicad demo projects?
• Do you get a crash if you create a new project with new schematic/board files?
• Could you attach one of the crashing projects in this thread?

[maestroque]

• Yes it happened with all of them
• I tried the one attached, but still crashing
• Same for demo projects
• Yes, I tried it, still crashes

[mf_ibfeew]

So if all projects (schematic+board files) are crashing I think it depends on your computer system / windows installation.
Could you change the global Preferences setting prior to opening the schematic/pcb files:

• common section: aliasing completely off
• schematic/pcb editor → display section: use fallback graphics
• schematic editor: default font == kicad font
• Data collection: enable data collection and set (reset) a unique Sentry ID
• after changing these settings close kicad (this saves the settings), then restart and try to open a project/schematic/board again.

Do you work from a network drive? Do you have installed kicad on a non-standard path?

If you have enabled the data collection provoke 1…2…3 crashes, then you could open a gitlab bugreport (from main project manager-_>Help–>Report bug) and provide your Sentry ID in this bugreport. If the crash was catched by the data collection engine then some information should be collected for the developers.

[maestroque]

Okay with fallback graphics it works! Thanks a lot!

Then this should be surely be an issue of my graphics drivers. I’m not sure what could it be since there are no updates and I have not made any recent changes that could provoke this behavior. Thanks again!

[maestroque]

The 3D viewer does not work though still.

[JohnRob]

I suggest you try viewing step files with “CAD Assistant” by Open Cascade. It is a free utility that does nothing but view step files. It will prove or disprove you computer & graphics is capable as it uses NO kicad files.