Move schematic+layout back to 7 from 8

I need to move a design back to 7. I had no backuo. There was alcohol involved.

Is this difficult? I want to preserve the layout and the schematic. I’ve done the QA, schematic->footprint->datasheet and placement.

Application: KiCad PCB Editor x86_64 on x86_64
Version: 8.0.0-8.0.0-1~ubuntu22.04.1, release build
Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.2.1
FreeType 2.11.1
HarfBuzz 2.7.4
FontConfig 2.13.1
libcurl/7.81.0 OpenSSL/3.0.2 zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.9 zstd/1.4.8 libidn2/2.3.2 libpsl/0.21.0 (+libidn2/2.3.2) libssh/0.9.6/openssl/zlib nghttp2/1.43.0 librtmp/2.3 OpenLDAP/2.5.16
Platform: Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK, X11, ubuntu, wayland
Build Info:
Date: Feb 23 2024 14:30:25
wxWidgets: 3.2.1 (wchar_t,wx containers) GTK+ 3.24
Boost: 1.74.0
OCC: 7.6.3
Curl: 7.81.0
ngspice: 42
Compiler: GCC 11.4.0 with C++ ABI 1016
Build settings:

There is likely a backup directory in your project. With a bit of luck you can restore a backup from before the conversion.

Another option is to just change the header. There is a datecode in the (human readable) file near the top. If you change that to a valid datecode for a KiCad V7 file, then there is a chance that it works.

I don’t know if this is relevant, but at least now you know alcohol is a solvent and can remove things permanently.

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Yes; particularly, in conjunction with a soft toothbrush, for removing flux from PCBs. Just to keep this interesting discussion entirely relevant to Kicad :grinning:

Interesting. That would mean that the V8 library format is the same as for V7.

Can anyone confirm that? Library formats are the same?

The only changes in library format in recent years is schematic from Kicad 5 to kicad 6.
That is when you need to use the “Migrate Libraries” button in the Symbol Libraries Editor.

The syntax is still S-expressions but new attributes will have been added.

This would be true for every major release.

It’s important to be more precise with a word such as format.

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I was able to get very simple leaf v8 schematics to revert to v7 by changing the date field. Schematics most schematics failed to revert.

Ha ha ha! The crux of the problem is that you should have involved more alcohol to the point you didn’t care anymore.

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