Hi. I run a computer lab at a university which needs Kicad installed. The version the teaching staff want to run is 5.1.10 on Windows 10 and I need to know if that version is supported by the developers before I can put it on the image for cyber security reasons.
Can anyone confirm if this version is supported and if not what is the oldest supported version of Kicad I can install
The reason we cant go ahead and install the latest version is that the person that was running the course has left and nobody has taken up the software to test if the later versions are compatible with the course they are trying to run. So they don’t want to take any chances running something that might not work with what they are trying to teach.
If you look at commercial support for KiCad at kipro-pcb then the most affordable option is for KiCad V7 and higher. The other option is for Legacy versions, you can still get support, but it costs more.
KiCad development has been going quite rapidly during the last bunch of years and KiCad V5 is considered quite ancient. Especially the transition from KiCad V5 to V6 is huge. All icons have been redesigned, and file formats have been changed to make them future proof (S-Expressions) and much more robust (all used schematic symbols and PCB footprints are now embedded in the schematic and PCB files). Differences between V6, V7, and V8 are much more gradual.
I would not recommend to use KiCad V5 now to anyone, mostly because of the file formats and dependence on external libraries (the “-cache” and “-rescue” libraries) The change of all icons also makes transitioning to a newer KiCad version later more difficult for students.
After a new mayor version is released (now V8) then pretty much all development on the previous version stops. But it always takes some time before the new mayor version stabilizes. If you want to use an older version, then always choose for the latest bug fix update (3rd number of the KiCad version number) of that version. For the ancient V5 that would be https://www.kicad.org/blog/2021/11/KiCad-5.1.12-Release/
I do not understand why you would prefer the “oldest supported version”. KiCad-7.0.11 is probably your best option. It’s the last and thud most stable of the previous mayor release.
Another option is to have a look at the articles from the hackspace magazine. I have not looked at that course, but it seems to be fairly comprehensive over about 8 issues of the magazine, and it’s freely accessible. HackSpace (& The MagPi): Getting started with KiCad
I confirm everything what paulvdh said.
But, if it were me to teach students a KiCad (in the distant past (1980s) I was an academic teacher) I would certainly used current (V8) release. I have just a moment ago written what of my previous problems was solved by V8:
I don’t think these students will be practically using KiCad in 2024 and in 2025 the current version will be V9. It will be much easier for them to learn the new features in V9 compared to V8 (1 year) than compared to V5 (about 7 years). Features of KiCad are frozen when major version is released so features in KiCad V5 are those of time when V 5.0.1 was released and not 5.1.12.
Since 5.0.1 was released working on all new features was shifted to V6. Next V5 releases were only bug fixes (except one small (UI, I think) change resulting in .1. in release number).
Well, almost. KiCad V5 is the only version which has had a minor release (Increment in 2nd number), and in KiCad V5.1.0 a short list of new features have been introduced. Part of the reason of this is that KiCad V6 took a long time to develop. There is 3 years of development in KiCad V6 and the difference between V6 and previous versions is huge. From V6 onward, differences are much more gradual. KiCad also adopted a yearly release schedule after V6. (They first tried december, but now seem to settle to release the next mayor version in February, just before FOSDEM.
Windows 10 handles V8 happily. Your only problem is Microsoft dropping general W10 support in a years time. Why use a very obsolete version of KiCad which has many bugs fixed in later versions and limited features?
This seems like the University is stuck between a rock and a hard place.
A subject about 5.1.10 will probably be completed after 9.0.0 is available; the differences between the versions being so great, enrolling in the 5.1.10 course is almost a waste of time and effort.
A subject about 7.0.0 or 8.0.0 will mean a lecturer needs to be familiar with the newer version, plus, the syllabus, lecture notes, visual aids etc. for that new version, will have to be created and approved before the subject is taught.
For me it is taking the subject too seriously.
I see nothing wrong if lecturer will be getting familiar with each subject a week before speaking about it. I see nothing wrong if something will not go perfect. Such situations teach more that when everything goes without any problems.
Once, when I was student at technical academy during physics exercises I said: I see that the result of solving the task agrees with the answer in the set of tasks, but our solution is definitely wrong. I agreed with the instructor that I would explain it in detail in a week.
The source of the problem was that on both sides of the energy balance, one component of different types was missing (e.g. elastic energy on one side and thermal energy on the other). They happened to have the same numerical values ​​and therefore the result matched. During the exercises I noticed one of them was missing and it took me a while to find the other one. I think that the problem during the exercises caused everyone to become more involved in the topic than if everything had gone normally and everyone had just copied the result into their notebook.
Because of this I think that not everything have to be prepared perfectly and even encountering problems promotes better learning.
Agree.
KiCad is not the most important part of the world. One of the most important concepts is that everything in the world changes, and you have to learn to continuously adapt to those changes. If you can’t adapt, you will be left behind.
In an university, you’re supposed to deal with smart students. If they can not accept and adopt to changes, then there will not be much of a job future for them. At the university, they probably already have learned this, but those students are probably still relatively young and have not seen the world change much yet.
I remember my grandmother telling me that airplanes did not exist when she was young and I just would not believe it. I first used the internet, or maybe better, the World_Wide_Web when I was around 25 years old. Before that, a stack of paper databooks was a precious possession. I barely managed to sell my CD collection a few years before those things became obsolete. Microcontrollers went from not existing yet, and starting very expensive, and EUR1500 for a compiler, to 30ct a piece and free development tools.
We’re going to try and move up to a later version. We need to run at least KiCad v6 but hopefully we can get the latest version in. Course is up in the air at the moment due to the previous guy leaving and there not being a lot of time to make new course materials for the newer version. Thanks for your help everybody
What are your thoughts about making your course material publicly available? I may have a look at modernizing it a bit. About 2 weeks ago I read though most of the “getting started in kicad” and made some notes for additions, but I’m having some trouble in getting to grips with git.