Transition to V7

Software
#1

Hello!
I’m trying to figure out how to switch to version 7. I was using version 6, the latest one, which is still
active. When pressingb “activity”, I can open either version, Kicad stable or nightly build. NB: I’m using
Ubuntu 22.10.

How to open an existing project?
I have zipped a project folder just in case something brownish hits the fan. I’m trying to open the
existing project using kicad nightly (7.0). When I try to open the schematic, here is what happens.
Screenshot from 2023-01-12 21-13-46
What am I supposed to do?

Thanks for any hint.

R

#2

Just click the OK and carry on.

There is a problem somewhere. I just can’t remember what.
That warning comes up every time the Schema and PCB are first opened.
At the moment I can’t install plug-ins.

#3

Indeed. KiCad V70.0-rc1 still works, except for the plugins and scripts. I get this message for about a week now and I’m wondering how long until it’s fixed. For me, the message itself is much more annoying than the lack of plugins. I would much prefer it showed an infobar instead of the dialog, or only showed the dialog when you are actually trying to use the scripting interface.

#4

Hello!
Thanks for your replies. Always surprised it’s so responsive.

I forgot to mention: If I click OK, the schematic is empty, same for the board.

Thanks,

R

#5

as others have already told, just press ok and wait for sunnier days.
As far as i can understand there is a problem with the versions of wxPython that Ubuntu use,
the details are here:

you will not be able to use at the moment the python console or any plugin…

#6

It’s a new program to you, so you have to find something to place on the screen.

Also, for future openings of Kicad, to remember to open a current project, go to:
Preferences / Common / Session / Remember open files for next project launch.

From memory, Kicad 6 did this automatically, even with that box unticked. It seems we have to tick a box for this occurrence in 7.

#7

Hello!

Thanks for your replies.
Unfortunately, I don’t understand them. Let’s restart at step one:
As mentioned before, I try to open an existing project made with the latest 6 version.
There is a message like “do you want to replace the project file”, and since I made a backup,
I clicked OK to proceed.
Kicad opens fine.
Now if I want to open the schematic or the board, I get the message above about python, and if
I click OK, I get an empty schematic sheet or empty board sheet.

Does this mean that V7.0 does not work at the moment?
If yes, OK, I will wait until the release.
If no (i.e. if it works), how do I open a V6 project?

I understand it’s a new program. I just want to open a project made with the previous version.
What do you mean by “find something to place on the screen”? I found something: a project
made with V6 that I would like to “place on the screen”.

Thanks,

R

#8

File / Open Project / Navigate to your project in the new window “Open Existing Project”, clicking the appropriate title in the list on the LHS. Click open, your Project File will fill, then go to Schema or PCB.

#9

it means that:

other features apart from that are working.

#10

Hello!

I’m not aware of using any plugin and I don’t recall installing one.
I went back to version 6 and opened the “Plugin and contents manager” box.
Apparently no plugin is installed. At the beginning it says “fetching repository”. And once
the plugin and contents manager pops up, it says Reposotory(41) Insalled(0) Pending(0),
so apparently nothing is installed.
Are there plugins not managed by the plugin manager? In this case how can I
find and remove them?

Thanks,

R

#11

yes, if you see 0 plugins in the manager it means that you have not installed any.

#12

Hello!

Thanks for your reply.
Ok, if I have really not installed any plugin, why do I get this message?
Or is there another method to convert a project from V6 to V7, copying the prohect
folder to somewhere else, etc?

Thanks,

R

#13

because is a message related to the plugin manager , not to a plugin.
it says: “python plugins will not be availabe”

copy your 6.x project somewhere, open the project with 7.x, it’s converted in the new format when you save.
Be aware that 7.x projects cannot be reopened with previous versions.

#14

Dear roboya,
the error message says, that the wxpython package is wrong.
Ubuntu is already quite late with updates of wxWidgets. Therefore the additional package wxPython is available in the repositories in an old version too. This package is strictly linked to the wxWidgets version it was compiled with. Here the available version in the standard repositories is still compiled against wxWidgets 3.0.5.
For ubuntu the problem is to get the latest packages for wxwidgets and wxpython.
For 22.04 LTS the latest versions for wxWidgets are provided by codelight as external packages. For your version this is not available yet (this is one occasion where the latest version of ubuntu is a drawback)
For wxPython several wheels are provided for ubuntu, I didn’t check if a proper one is available yet. For myself I compiled my working one from the sources.
So if both packages are in the appropriate version, everything works fine. Since this is hardly achievable for ubuntu, I noticed another issue where it was noted that the kicad team is working to include the proper wxpython version in the app.
Up to that you must accept that wxWidgets on ubuntu is a nightmare.

1 Like
#15

It sounds like there is an incompatibility between KiCad 7 and Ubuntu. What operating system do you recommend for running KiCad 7?

Thanks,

#16

The Ubuntu problem is being worked on and will be fixed before V7 is released. For the moment, users on Ubuntu have (at least) three options:

  • ignore the error message and don’t use Python
  • install using FlatPak instead of the Ubuntu PPA
  • Compile from source
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#17

I find this wxPython message a bit annoying, especially because I open and close KiCad a lot for answering questions on this forum.

I would much prefer it to be an infobar which does not require clicking, but the issue is not big enough to open an issue for it. And it’s likely to be fixed in a week (or two) anyway…

#18

It’s supposed to be annoying and hard to miss, because this state also causes KiCad crashes that we can’t fix under some circumstances, and we don’t want people reporting that KiCad crashed without also noticing this error message.

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