This topic will be used to announce new features and other significant development updates during the KiCad 9 development cycle.
This topic is only for announcements. Please start new topics to discuss new features.
Ethan Chien has contributed a new Zone Manager feature, which allows easy preview and adjustment of zone priorities and other settings:
33 Likes
@jp-charras added the ability to hide hidden fields from the symbol editor (View > Show Hidden Fields, and the spreadsheet icon on the left toolbar – this icon is a placeholder until we design a new one)
14 Likes
Ethan Chen has contributed a new sheet pin/hierarchical label synchronization tool. This tool provides management of sheet pins and their associated hierarchical labels instead of having to switch back and forth between the sheet and schematic.
18 Likes
Added support for importing Altium Schematic in ASCII format.
Backported to 8.0.2.
11 Likes
Added PCB 3D image raytracing rendering from CLI, with transparent background support.
Usage string
Usage: render [--help] [--output OUTPUT_FILE] [--define-var KEY=VALUE] [--width WIDTH] [--height HEIGHT] [--side SIDE] [--background BG] [--quality QUALITY] [--preset PRESET] [--floor] [--perspective] [--zoom ZOOM] [--pan VECTOR] [--pivot PIVOT] [--rotate ANGLES] INPUT_FILE
Renders the PCB in 3D view to PNG or JPEG image
Positional arguments:
INPUT_FILE Input file
Optional arguments:
-h, --help Shows help message and exits
-o, --output Output file [nargs=0..1] [default: ""]
-D, --define-var Overrides or adds project variables, can be used multiple times to declare multiple variables.
Use in the format of '--define-var key=value' or '-D key=value' [nargs=0..1] [default: {}]
-w, --width Image width [nargs=0..1] [default: 1600]
-h, --height Image height [nargs=0..1] [default: 900]
--side Render from side. Options: top, bottom, left, right, front, back [nargs=0..1] [default: "top"]
--background Image background. Options: transparent, opaque. Default: transparent for PNG, opaque for JPEG [nargs=0..1] [default: ""]
--quality Render quality. Options: basic, high, user [nargs=0..1] [default: "basic"]
--preset Color preset. Options: follow_pcb_editor, follow_plot_settings, legacy_preset_flag, ... [nargs=0..1] [default: "follow_plot_settings"]
--floor Enables floor, shadows and post-processing, even if disabled in quality preset
--perspective Use perspective projection instead of orthogonal
--zoom Camera zoom [nargs=0..1] [default: 1]
--pan Pan camera, format 'X,Y,Z' e.g.: '3,0,0' [nargs=0..1] [default: ""]
--pivot Set pivot point relative to the board center in centimeters, format 'X,Y,Z' e.g.: '-10,2,0' [nargs=0..1] [default: ""]
--rotate Rotate board, format 'X,Y,Z' e.g.: '-45,0,45' for isometric view [nargs=0..1] [default: ""]
Isometric video render example:
kicad-cli pcb render --floor --zoom 1.4 --rotate '-45,0,45' -o render.png video.kicad_pcb
23 Likes
JamesJ has moved the Net Inspector to a docked panel (View > Show Net Inspector to show/hide)
This includes improved filtering and grouping UX, the ability to show/hide and reorder the columns, and save/restore of all the settings.
19 Likes
Miklós Márton added an option to change sheet names in the schematic hierarchy navigator.
11 Likes
Solid 3D model export improvements:
- Option to fuse copper geometry together
- Option to export copper on inner layers
- Options to exclude board body or components
- Net filter (can be used to export a single net)
- Zone geometry approximation with arcs for faster processing and smaller file sizes
- Export in BREP or XAO formats
XAO defines pad surfaces as face groups and can be imported into SALOME or newer versions of Gmsh for FEM simulations:
13 Likes
Extended the physical_clearance rule to apply between copper fills & footprint courtyards.
(rule "No copper pours under Capacitors"
(constraint physical_clearance (min 0.1mm))
(condition "A.Type == 'Zone' && B.Reference == 'C*'")
)
will knock out the courtyard of any footprint whose reference starts with “C” from all copper fills.