Live angle preview when editing polygons
43 Likes
Reworking of “Override Locks” architecture. Instead of getting a popup dialog each time you try to move locked items, there’s now a global checkbox that you can turn on for a series of operations and then turn back off.
27 Likes
There is now a concept of PCB “points”, which are zero-dimensional objects you can place into footprints and PCBs. These can be used to place footprints at defined relative offsets, to mark important locations that can be snapped to, to mark THT footprint “centres” when using the IPC origin-at-pin-1 convention, etc.
E.g. this stackable THT battery holder can have the centre point defined, and can also have edge-to-edge snaps set up:
Points have a layer (and follow the usual snapping rules for All/Active layers via Shift+S and visibility based on that layer), and they have a “size”, which only affects the drawn size on the board.
38 Likes
PCB Design Blocks have been added.
Groups in both editors now have a concept of a “library link”, which links the group to a source design block.
Schematic groups can now be transferred to the PCB editor along with their members, and if a library link is present, this will be transferred to the PCB group, too.
PCB groups with a library link can have a number of operations applied using that link, such as Apply Design Block Layout:
49 Likes
Lasso selection comes to schematic editor as well
35 Likes
WYSIWYG font display in the chooser
36 Likes
Drills tab in the PCB Search panel.
Selecting a row will select all of that type, so you can modify them quickly with the properties panel.
30 Likes
Easier display of stacked pin numbers for clarifying what is exactly in that stack.
40 Likes
3D PDF File Export has been added. Sponsored by the NLNET Foundation Grant for 2025.
Which is available as a PDF option in the “Export 3D Model Dialog”
3D PDF is limited to PDF viewers that support it. This generally means Adobe PDF and Foxit.
Browser based viewers do not fully implement the PDF standard.
44 Likes
Unconstrained Net and Gate/Unit swapping has come to both the schematic and PCB editors.
Both Forward and Back annotation of pad and gate net swaps between PCB < - > schematic also works.
This is a relatively large feature that can mean many things to many people, so it might be worthwhile to read the spec and merge request if you’re curious about exactly what was implemented (and what wasn’t):
PCB Example of Gate Swap:
Schematic example of unit swap and pin label swap:
35 Likes
Want your sheet filenames without extensions? Try:
@{beforelast(${SHEETFILE}, ".")}
14 Likes
Lots of ERC and DRC errors now have fix actions:
Full list of errors with actions:
DRCE_LIB_FOOTPRINT_ISSUES
DRCE_LIB_FOOTPRINT_MISMATCH
DRCE_FOOTPRINT_FILTERS
DRCE_SCHEMATIC_PARITY
DRCE_MISSING_FOOTPRINT
DRCE_DUPLICATE_FOOTPRINT
DRCE_EXTRA_FOOTPRINT
DRCE_FOOTPRINT_TYPE_MISMATCH
DRCE_FOOTPRINT
DRCE_PADSTACK
DRCE_PADSTACK_INVALID
DRCE_TEXT_HEIGHT
DRCE_TEXT_THICKNESS
DRCE_MIRRORED_TEXT_ON_FRONT_LAYER
DRCE_NONMIRRORED_TEXT_ON_BACK_LAYER
DRCE_DANGLING_TRACK
DRCE_DANGLING_VIA
ERCE_SIMULATION_MODEL
ERCE_FOOTPRINT_FILTERS
ERCE_FOOTPRINT_LINK_ISSUES
ERCE_LIB_SYMBOL_ISSUES
ERCE_LIB_SYMBOL_MISMATCH
ERCE_UNANNOTATED
ERCE_DUPLICATE_REFERENCE
ERCE_UNDEFINED_NETCLASS
34 Likes
As an addendum to the unconstrained gate/net swapping, you can now swap symbol pins if you choose to enable this setting:
This feature is not without risks, as it will modify your schematic-local symbols to not match the library symbols, so it is disabled by default. (Similar to free pads mode in the PCB editor).
This also works when transferring changes from the PCB to the schematic to due pad net swaps. You will have preferential control over whether this type of swapping is preferred, and also informational output when the swap cannot be performed.
15 Likes
New multi-plot option when tuning values in the simulator. Also allows dragging the cursor between plot line values
23 Likes
Precise point editing on zones and polygons
35 Likes
Early warning for dragging overlapping nets
45 Likes
You can now export a PCB statistics report (the same as Inspect->Show Board Statistics menu item) from the command line and jobsets.
21 Likes
Jobsets now have an Open Output button for each output, that is enabled upon successful completion.
19 Likes