Hi everybody
I just switched to Kicad 4.04 and I noticed that it is not possible to place component with old browser any more. In older versions there was “place component” button in the browser window when it was invoked by place component->place by browser.
Does anyone know if there is an easy way for the user to enable this button when the browser is invoked from the toolbar?
I assume you are talking about adding footprints in PCBNew. When you click the “Select by Browser” you can then browse through the loaded libraries. To add a footprint to the board either double click on the footprint name or use the button on the toolbar “Insert footprint in board”.
Well, I am talking more about eeschema. It used to behave the same way as pcbnew, but now there is different “place component” dialog which I find less convenient than library browser available from the toolbar. The browser has ability to place component - but the “place” button is hidden when it is invoked from the toolbar. This is quite strange behaviour, so I wanted to report it as a bug - but it was already reported long time ago ( https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/920380 ). The answer from developers is that “it is by design” (sic!).
eeschema gets a big overhaul (With the next big kicad release).
I think the devs don’t want to change anything in the current version.
I agree the “Library Browser” is not all that useful.
But I don’t see what the problem is with the “Add Footprint” dialog. It also allows you to browse the libraries and then you either click ok or cancel. It also provides some searchability which the library browser does not.
Translation: Eeschema will soon be as broken as PCBNew. 
I don’t agree that PCBNew is broken.
But i never worked with the legacy canvas. Maybe i don’t know what i miss.
(I started using kicad about a year ago. And have always used nightly builds.)
There is no problem with “Add Component” dialog - it is much better than the previous one, but it displays components and libraries in one list as a tree, which I don’t like.
I feel much more comfortable with separate lists for libraries and components - exactly as in the “Component Browser”, which is different tool. That’s why I would like to have “place” button there. And in fact it is there - it is just hidden, becouse the browser is invoked from the toolbar.
Big overhaul? 
Let’s hope there won’t be any big surprise (like reversed diodes in new pcb footprints)
PCBNew needs fixing so that would imply that it is broken.
There are several features/functions that are in the default canvas that are missing from the OpenGL canvas. DRC is unreliable in the OpenGL canvas. I wouldn’t use OpenGL canvas at all if it weren’t for a few nice features that do work reasonably well. I would just like to see PCBNew finished before they start “fixing” something else that isn’t broken.
I like the tree layout a little better, it’s closer to how you would browse directories on a hard drive. It would also allow libraries to be further split into categories if they were to add support for that. The library browser only supports a flat library format.
I agree that organising libriaries as a tree is good (maybe even the best) way to manage them. Displaying this tree in one huge list is not.
If there is a plan to make libraries hierarchical (which is nice idea) then plain view of the browser simply won’t work. In that case it would be better to display just a part of the tree and the path to it - I think it is the most common view in file commanders, isn’t it?
By the way - is there any (special) wishlist related to this overhaul you mentioned?
As i understand it, the overhaul is focused on what is going on under the hood. (Similar to pcb new)
As far as i know all file formats will be overhauled (lib and sch).
The library will be organized similar to the footprint lib, where each symbol is a file inside a directory.
Other than that i don’t really know.
There has been talk that simulation support will be added but i don’t know if that is official.