This comes a bit late, but for those who use python plugins:
Because of KiCad code API changes v5 plugins don’t necessarily work with 5.99 (or later v6). It depends on each plugin developer how they handle this. For example Interactive HTML BOM by @qu1ck has been updated in git master but some other plugins don’t work as of now.
The plugin search path has changed. The safest way to add plugins for 5.99 is probably to use <user configuration dir>/scripting/plugins/, i.e.
~/.config/kicad/5.99/scripting/plugins/ on Linux
%appdata%\kicad\5.99\scripting\plugins\ on Windows
~/Library/Preferences/kicad/5.99/scripting/plugins/ on Mac (untested by me).
Python console may not work, see [SOLVED] Kicad Nightly "unable to create the Python console" etc. (Maybe I should recompile KiCad from scratch because this still doesn’t work automatically for me. EDIT: yes, rebuilding from scratch works.)
This plugin path change ignited many comments and also other important information (changes on other platforms) which can be found in the split discussion.
Author: jean-pierre charras <jp.charras@wanadoo.fr>
Date: Sat Jan 30 09:59:53 2021 +0100
Use aperture macro for custom pads. Optimize aperture macros for free polygons.
These aperture macros were previously used but only for chamfered round rect.
They are now also used for custom pads (previously drawn as regions).
They are also optimized, i.e. only one aperture macro is created for a given shape.
(previously, one aperture macro was created for each chamfered round rect pad.)
So now all pads are flashed.
Some other changes to pads caused problems with 3rd party software (most notably JLCPB CAM), so you should be aware of this one, too. It depends on the features used on the footprints/layout whether some problems are triggered in other software or not. If you have access to some 3rd party software which reads and and interprets gerbers, please test, or send gerbers with all kinds of pads in several rotated positions to your manufacturer. (Do not disable aperture macros for these tests.)
For new installs (or for when you wipe out your config directory), the hotkey Ctrl+H is changed from the legacy “high contrast” toggle to the new 3-state layer display mode toggle. This will cycle through showing inactive layers normally, dimmed, and off (the old hotkey just toggled between normal and dimmed).
If you don’t erase your config, this change won’t affect you, so I encourage you to consider making this switch yourself in your hotkey preferences:
If you haven’t tried this feature, it’s like the old “hide all layers but active” action available from right-clicking the list of layers, but better: unlike that one, this will keep working as you change layers.
Will the excellent plugins by @maui and others (e.g. StepUp, RF tools, via stitching,…) work with version 6 when all is said and done and ver. 6 is officially released?
ATM there is a big issue on v6 because the code has changed a lot and Vias/Traces are invisible after plugin run. The user needs to save and reopen file to see them, even if they are in the file.
Same issue here:
There are already issues discussed at gitlab, but still open: issue #5678 issue #7065
Without #7065 closed (solved), nothing could be improved on plugin side.
this broken doesn’t depend at all on plugins developers, but it is a bug/missing feature on k code.
It is all on k devs to decide how approach the python support.
few comments relevant to the issue:
It appears like BOARD_ITEMS added via the python interface are never added to the View
really Python programs should not be using BOARD::Add but the normal COMMIT infrastructure is not exposed right now, and I’m not sure the history behind that
Many script need to add items to a board. It allow opportunity to have many “small” feature (On my side, ViaStitching, but many others) developed by the users…
My comment was aimed only at the changed API in general. I’m not familiar with the details or bugs, so thanks for the first hand knowledge, it’s pretty important to know.
It works on a selection, and if there’s no meaningful conversion possibility for the current selection, the tool can’t be used. For example to convert a continuous polygonal bunch of lines to a polygon you have to select all those lines and nothing else.
EDIT: please everyone, keep further questions, wishes, issues etc. out from this thread, create dedicated threads instead.
@twl committed many smaller or larger changes to the router. It would probably be good to have extra testing. (Again, don’t comment in this thread!) Unfortunately I can’t focus on that right now myself.
KiCad now has icons in an external .tar.gz package. “This file should be installed to ${KICAD_DATA}/resources/images.tar.gz (So, something like /usr/share/kicad/resources/images.tar.gz on Linux)” says Jon. It includes a dark theme, too. At the moment it works on GTK systems (Linux). See the screenshot in New icons in nightly.
Until now the icon data was embedded directly into the binary files. Now it should be possible to change icons sets by just changing the package file.
Dark theme can also be selected in Preferences -> Common.
