PCBNew Files Saved WIth (Nightly) Release 7525 Will Not Open

If you are running nightly builds, please beware that files saved from Release " kicad-r7525.8f82f04-x86_64.exe " (posted on 26-Jan-2017) may not open.

Attempting to open the file gives the squawk :

[quote] " Error loading board.
Expecting “(” in input/source ‘C:\Users\ . . . . \PC_Board.kicad.pcb’
line xxx " [/quote]
I investigated the problem by comparing the file saved from R7525 to previous versions of the file saved from other KiCAD builds. The error message sounds like a case of mis-matched parentheses, but it is not. I found several instances where the attribute " hide " was added to footprint modules used on the PC board. Replacing the instances of " hide)" with simply “)” produced a file that DID open, but after saving the file again, it would NOT open.

You can recover the file by opening it in a text editor (such as " Notepad++ “) and searching for the string " hide)”. If it is within a “module” section of the PCB file, replace it with only the close-parenthesis character, “)”. (Note: There are other places where the string " hide)" is correct. Don’t do a global replacement of the string!)

Save the file, UN-install Release 7525, and install a (earlier?) release that doesn’t have this problem. The file should open, and save, with no problems.

Bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/1659736

Dale

1 Like

Funny, I was just looking at this change last night and thinking “a file format change, I wonder if they changed the version number?”

The commit that changed the pcbnew file format this this one https://git.launchpad.net/kicad/commit/?id=d4acfb9f5acf26f6bd479405eb029588d2ff486e Maybe it is not quite finished.