Pcbnew module for Kicad >= 5.99

[leoheck]

How do I import or find the pcbnew module for Kicad >= 5.99 ?
By the way, I am running Ubuntu 21.04
I want to check if my plugins still work on this version if I have to update something.

[paulvdh]

You should be able to just open any KiCad project made in an older version in V5.99. KiCad files have version info (number or date string) embedded in them, so KiCad is able to recognise the version of the file format.

If you save the project in the latest version, you can not read it with an older version anymore.

Plugins / scripting is a bit different.
Apparently a lot of scripts / plugins do not run unmodified in KiCad-nightly V5.99. As far as I know most people who write /maintain scripts & plugins are sort of waiting for a signal that the interface won’t change anymore for KiCad V6 so they don’t have to do the work twice.

[leoheck]

This is what I am asking. Does Kicad >= 5.99 have this python module? Where this is stored?
I am not using the python module of the pcbnew inside kicad. I am using a standalone python script for that.

[MitjaN]

Look at Qu1ck’s post

[leoheck]

Thanks. Using qu1ck’s answer this is what we need to do. This solves my issue.

export PYTHONPATH=/usr/lib/kicad-nightly/lib/python3/dist-packages/ 
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/kicad-nightly/lib/python3/dist-packages/

And then if you use this in your python script

import pcbnew
print(pcbnew.GetBuildVersion())

It is going to output this

5.99.0-unknown-b10f156dd0~130~ubuntu21.04.1