Hi everyone,
I decided to move from version 6 to version 8 because so many improvements have been made, and I was wondering a few things:
my name.kicad_sym and pcb name.pretty schema libraries need to be converted or are already fine as they are.
I have been using KiCad for many years and I find myself having done many projects with version 5 and version 6. Now I want to switch to 8, but I know that I can convert to the newer version, but with a lot of pain… Now I can distinguish version 5 from 6 and if I have to make minimal changes to old projects I leave them as is without transforming them. but now I would also have a new version, and ok the new projects are with the new version, but how to manage the three versions I would have, given that 6 is confused with 8? Has anyone had this problem and solved it?
Thank you
When moving from V5 to V6 I opened all my projects one by one and saved them with new version. I think that I had also to open all my symbol libraries and save them in new format.
The same procedure I used when moving V6->V7 but I abandoned a few projects that I don’t anticipate needing (like rev.A when I already have rev.B and rev.C). I plan to do it the same way when will be moving (in month or two) to V8. It takes some time but then using only current version has its advantages.
What sort of difficulties are you experiencing? If you do it “properly”, then conversion should be pretty much easy and painless.
KiCad V4 had straight dependencies on external libraries, and if those external libraries are not available during conversion, then it will indeed be difficult.
KiCad V5 has is [project]-cache.lib and [project]-rescue.lib files and those are an important part of the project. Those files are also needed during the conversion.
KiCad V6 and newer have all information embedded in the project itself (Except for the 3D models). Conversion from V6 or newer to even newer versions should be as trivial as just opening the project in your latest and greatest KiCad version and saving it.
yes of course, the conversion happens well for both the schematic and the PCB, the problem is when you do a rules check, which gives you many errors, perhaps due to all the new functions, for example in the schematic it tells me that I have everything off the grid " Symbol pin or wire end off connection", and on the PCB many errors, which if I open it with the previous version does not give me…
You can switch off DRC tests that were not done previously.
On the other hand I don’t care about DRC errors in old projects. I need them mainly to be able to see schematic and PCB. If I were modifying it (to get new revision) then I will start from checking what is going on with these errors - to switch them off or to modify PCB.
Yes, a lot of extra checks have been added to both ERC and DRC. Most are sensible and useful, but there are also a few that do not make sense for everybody (Such as the Footprint doesn’t match copy in library)
The off grid thing in the schematic is something some people never encounter, because they always put stuff on a grid (especially people using KiCad for a longer time) while some people new with KiCad experiment a bit with different grid settings, and this is not a very good idea in KiCad. The easiest way to fix the issue is to first set your schematic to use the most sensible grid which is 1.27mm (50mil), then select everything in the schematic, do a right click and then select Align elements to Grid from the context menu.
ok, thanks for the information. I’ll have to see on a case by case basis what I need to do to resolve it. in any case the transition is not painless, but necessary to have the new functions.
in version 8 some things that were convenient disappeared…:
in the schematic, double clicking on the component opens the properties window where I assign the footprint… and clicking on the line opens the lib. here there was the possibility of seeing 3d, now it is no longer there
One thing I really appreciate is the possibility of custom colored threads and labels