I copied 7.0 files from my desktop (.kicad_sch, .ikcad_pro, .kicad_pri – everything in the folder).
The schematic opened fine with a warning that I was opening a schematic that was saved in an older version and that it would be created to 8.0 on save. I was able to dismiss the warning.
When I clicked on the “Switch to Pcb Editer” icon, I got a similar warning in the pcb editor. But, I’m not able to dismiss that warning.
Nothing is visible, but I can do updates from the schematic and see what I’d expect from the report. Same for DRC.
That’s two typing errors in the file names. If you do that on your PC, it will surely confuse it.
KiCad also expects a project to be in a directory with the same name. I am not sure how KiCad behaves if this condition is not met. In practice it’s easier to just copy the whole project directory, and then delete files that are not needed.
Actually, if I launch the pcb editor before starting the schematic editor, all is good–except now I get the same symptom when I try to open the schematic editor.
This is with 7, not 8. Didn’t repeat the experiment for 8.
That is what i was thinking until I saw either tool worked fine if started first.
Can"t check right now, but its unlikely there any newer drivers available. If it was it would be the only app with display drivers in over 10 years of usage
Go to “Preferences” and set display options for ALL editors to “Fallback graphics”. In the “Common” section disable all graphic acceleration. Now it should work.
Take it from there by enabling them again one-by-one if you like.
This confirms it is a problem with your graphics card or driver, in case you want to get normal (accelerated) mode working again that would be where to investigate. Using fallback mode is a workaround but not ideal.
A comment on that:
I’m using 15+ year old laptops (2 GHz amd64, 4 GB RAM), and rendering speed is absolutely no problem in fallback mode.
That might be different for 3D rendering, which I don’t use. If 3D is needed, I’d focus on that.
I don’t see a need for graphics acceleration when doing schematics or layouts, at least not with the complexity of my designs.
Maybe for 3d rendering, but if that’s really slow, all I really need is to export step files. I use them on my desktop for enclosure design and integrating into the system .
I’ve set everything to fallback graphics and that fixed the invisible shematic and layout. But I still have same issue in footprint editor when I try to associate a 3d model.
Again, it works ok if it’s the first time instance of the footprint editor. I can workaround the issue by closing everything after each 3d model assignment, and starting Kicad up again.
That symptom makes it seem like there’s something going on in Kicad. Using fallback graphics can (in most cases) make the issue go away, but if the graphics acceleration works on first time open, why never after?
I didn’t care enough to ask that question when I had a workaround (and I still don’t, if I can get the 3d footprint association working without having to keep closing and re-opening Kicad.
There is no fallback graphics available for the 3D areas of KiCad. If your graphics setup is not working, 3D will not work unfortunately. Fallback graphics only disables GPU acceleration for the 2D editors.
Everything works fine, first time use regardless of whether fallback graphics are used.
So, it seems like something Kicad is doing works on newer drivers, but not older ones. Maybe trying to “open” something that is already open.
If closing the app and re-opening Kicad makes it work, then it seems that Kicad COULD work. But, I understand that it wouldn’t be worth the bother to support old hardware (mine is over 10 years old too).
Can you check whether there are newer drivers available for your PC, and update them. If you have to set KiCad to use fallback graphics, then this is often an indication of using old drivers for your graphics cards. When you update those drivers you may be able to use acellerated graphics in KiCad again.
