many thanks for all the answers.
just installed it from the arch aur repository now, should be a 5rc2 nightly build.
I would not advise a beginner to learn 4.0.7 these days. The old 4.0.7 has far more bugs as there have been no fixes back ported for a long time.
One caveat to this is that it is not advisable to upload V5rcX projects to the world until the actual release, V4 users would have problems with them.
1 Like
It would be interesting to hear if someone has any reason why one should start with version 4 instead of 5.
I looked into the documentation linked above, but only the Getting Started guide. It’s not completely up to date but better than I thought (maybe I have been fooled earlier by the copyright years which I checked to know where it was going). The small errors there should be easily cured. So it’s not a hindrance.
I can’t come up with any reason to start with v4 except when a newcomer has some helpful friend at hand who uses v4 only and can teach it. The multiuser corporate settings are of course a different thing.
Few days ago someone explainded here that what currently are nightly it is not rc2 yet. That KiCad designers selceted the way of nameing versions in which rc2 means “we are going to rc2 and here is our next step” and not “we have rc2 and here is step after rc2”.
Reading it I assumed I will wait for rc2.
Do during these few days rc2 was released?
Yes: https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/msg35833.html
And there is a package for debian: https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/msg35959.html
I don’t know what ‘debian’ means.
After writing here I read other thread where I understood that other packages are in preparation now and then will be officially announced “We have RC2”.
Please let me know about what exactly software you speak here?
Starting form KiCad|Download|Windows except stable 4.0.7 I cen see only nightly:
http://downloads.kicad.org/windows/nightly/
But there I don’t see nowhere rc2 in packages names (I understood previously that versions going to rc2 have rc2 in names. I went up in this directory but under Windows I don’t see enything with rc2 in names. So I went more up to debian (as it was written that debian rc2 is ready) and there are not. So it looks that I am searching in wrong place and rc2 (and going to rc2) files are probably somewhere else.
From posted here link for debian I also don’t know how to travel from there to windows. I don’t expect there ready rc2 as I read that it will be soon but may be there are some “giong to rc2” packages.
So where it is you all are speaking about?
There hasn’t been a specific Windows package released for the version which was tagged RC2 (8 days ago, according to the code repository: https://git.launchpad.net/kicad/tag/?id=5.0.0-rc2). After the RC2 checkpoint was announced the nightlies kept coming, so the latest nightlies are RC2 + bugfixes. At the moment, when the features etc. are freezed, only bugfixes go to the nightly builds until the final 5.0.0 has been released and the main code base has been opened for feature development. After that the nightlies aren’t safe or stable for everyday use; right now they are almost as much as the final 5.0.0 will be. Whether or not RC3 or the final 5.0.0 will be tagged soon is quite much irrelevant for those who want to use the latest code on Windows.
(Tagging means just putting an extra mark to some specific code commit. That’s what happened with RC1 and RC2, but Windows packagers didn’t release packages with those names.)
1 Like
in V5rc2 the “rc” stands for “release candidate”. Every KiCad V5 is still in the “nightly” builds and not official (yet), but I’ve read a bunch of posts that it is more stable then V4.0.7.
But I just had another idea:
Keep it simple for yourself, and just start somewhere, without bothering too much about version numbers.
You will probably get V4.0.7 if from a “normal” installation pocedure.
Then start with the “getting started with KiCad” which is also written for V4, and you can learn a lot about the way KiCad works.
One of the big changes in V5 is the way libraries are managed. So don’t spend too much time on the library management in V4. But if you use V4 or V5, it is still KiCad and >80% or >90% will still work the same, or very similar. (I’m guessing here, I haven’t used V5 yet, because I have to finish some V4 PCB’s before I will switch to V5).
1 Like
Ah, of course, openGL
PCBnew -> View -> “Switch canvas to openGL [F11]”.
I believe that has become the default for V5 and the other’s are (almost?) obsolete?
Apart from the Canvas & OpenGL, what are the biggest changes between V4 and V5?
Idea is to give Ionox some idea on where to put his focus and on which parts to shrug his shoulders, and don’t dive in too deep.
I start to be interested KiCad when I sow manual router demos in OpenGL. I have designed one PCB working in OpenGL. Some my questions comed from that I really forgot there is also Default and coudn’t do something beeing in OpenGL.Now I have only to finish the doccumentation of my PCB and next one I believe to do in V5. I have installed today nightly on second computer just to look around in it.
- Sym-lib-table (Symbol lib management now works similar to footprint lib management)
- Completely new symbol editor
- Automatic junction management in eeschema
- New component chooser (with an experimental option to select the footprint already when placing the symbol.)
- update pcb from schematic (no need to manually export the netlist any more)
- courtyard and edge cut support for DRC
- graphical polygons
- custom and rounded rectangle pads
- net highlighting in both pcb_new and eeschema (cross highlighting possible)
- Stitching via support (vias do no longer need to be connected to a trace to be connected to a net)
- Flip board view (look at pcb from the bottom directly in pcb_new)
- In pcb_new the render management (right side next to layer selection) got a massive overhaul.
- Massive overhaul of the official library (Reorganized by function, new unified naming convention, nearly all footprints got an overhaul to fulfill KLC, …)
2 Likes
And don’t forget the menu structure overhaul, it’s not about functionality but requires a bit re-learning. Also there shouldn’t be so many functions which can be reached only by the toolbar buttons.
There are many, many small changes which can be huge time savers for the user, but it’s highly a personal matter. All in all v4 and v5 are quite different experiences.
- step 3D format support
The situation with the documentation isn’t still very good, I’m afraid. Newcomers need a tutorial rather than a reference manual. The Getting Started Guide isn’t in good shape, it can’t be followed with nightly builds, there are just too many minor and even major changes in KiCad. Actually majority of the UI strings in the Guide have been changed. I’m going through the Guide, editing it and making pull requests.
I don’t know if there are any video tutorials using pre-5, I would believe that those made with v4 are as confusing for v5 as text-based tutorials - or even more so, because you can’t easily follow on-the-fly what they are doing because the menu structures are different. In text you at least have opportunity to go with your own pace…
Newbie here can someone please share a link for V5RC2 nightly builds. I did a bit of searching around and couldn’t find it.
Thanks!
Here is the main Kicad download area.
Go to your OS and you will find a link to download the nightly development build.
See this FAQ
If you read the previous posts of this thread carefully you will understand what rc2 means.
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.