Manual for ver 5.1

[mattie]

Is there an updated manual for ver 5.1 on the way??
I am newish to Kicad and have spent the last week trying to learn it. ( I learned some of the basics years ago but haven’t used it since) While I recognize the power of the package, and the huge improvements made in that time, the learning experience has been frustrating due to lack of accuracy in the documentation. The current documentation for ver 5.1 seems to be for the old version .( I downloaded it from the ver 5.1 page on the main Kicad website.) Is there a more up to date version somewhere else? I am wasting so much time chasing false information that I am close to giving up!
One example: 1 1/2 hours trying to unstack , align/distribute components in pcbnew ! My components arrive in pcbnew stacked on top of each other. On discussions on the net the consensus is that they open distributed across the board. No mention of align/distribute in documentation!
Many of the terms used in the documentation differ from those in the app itself. ( cvpcb … footprint editor) (symbol editor…component editor) .
I understand that the contributors are volunteers but surely after going to the trouble of writing new code for improved functionality, the priority would be to document it for users. Failing this, at the very least flag the out of date documentation as being as such. As it stands the beginner is left wondering if he has the wrong s/w or wrong settings or documentation.
Even with perfect documentation the package is complex to learn. I fear that a lot of users may be put off by this. I have ordered the book Kicad Like a pro… hope it will help. When I figure it out I’d be happy to offer help with documentation …from the perspective of a novice.

[Rene_Poschl]

@mattie

My components arrive in pcbnew stacked on top of eqch other.

Strange. It should be distributed next to each other, organized loosely by hierarchical page. How do you import the connectivity information into pcbnew? What toolset do you use?

[mattie]

Hi Rene,
The real purpose of the topic is to clarify whether or not there are up to date version of manuals for ver 5 available now or in the pipeline in the near future. I have many other queries to solve, along with the example you commented on.
But to answer your question, I used eeschema to create the schematic, footprint editor to apply footprints, annotated schematic and generated netlist , ran ERC, started pcbnew and used “update pcb from schematic”. I am using the modern toolset. I never used any other version other than 5.1. Windows 10.

[Seth_h]

@mattie

I understand that the contributors are volunteers but surely after going to the trouble of writing new code for improved functionality, the priority would be to document it for users. Failing this, at the very least flag the out of date documentation as being as such. As it stands the beginner is left wondering if he has the wrong s/w or wrong settings or documentation.

This remains a work in progress for version 5.1 and the documentation for that version will likely not improve substantially.

However, one of the goals for version 6 is to revamp the documentation during the feature freeze period. We hope to have the documentation situation in better hand for the next release.

This does not really help you for right now. I would recommend @Rene_Poschl’s FAQ series of articles on this website and @ChrisGammell’s Getting to Blinky 5.0 YouTube series. Both are excellent introductions to the current 5.x release.

[Piotr]

@mattie

I have many other queries to solve

I am slowly learning KiCad (3 PCBs done with KiCad till now). I think the best learning path for you would be:

• read FAQs,
• study KiCad menus (I made a spreadsheet with menu functions to have a place to make notes, but I expect that I can forget something and wont to have a fast way to remind everything - you need not to do it),
• ask here each question you have.

People here are polite enough to answer even ‘stupid’ questions (I used ’ ’ as there are no stupid questions).