User pattern in nightly builds

Hey everyone, I am generally very interested in how many of you are using the Nightly builds of kicad, and when you do, if you ever use the legacy view of pcbnew.

How do you use the nightly builds of kicad pcb-editor?

  • mostly in legacy
  • mostly in GAL view
  • switching between the views

0 voters

If you feel like commenting, please state from when the nightly builds are and why you use it like you do.

Thanks!

Okay, I see a few votes here. I am sensing that the GAL view is the most used, For the guys/girls using the legacy view or switching between them, what are the reasons?

I am asking because the legacy view is soon to be outdated and is planned to eventually be removed from Kicad. If the reason is that you do not have OpenGL have you tested the cairo view?

I see legacy view to turn off all layers except for top-level objects I want to select (on Eco1/2 layers for example), then select them.

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I then switched to OpenGL to select and delete, but recently figured out Legacy mode right click to bring up context menu for delete (I prefer the default action of OpenGL of “select” instead of Legacy’s “move”, BTW.

You didn’t ask for “Only OpenGL” or “only Default”. Also, GAL and legacy are not the terms used in KiCad, non-developers likely have no idea what GAL means.

The way the survey is constructed means that the conclusion is that all users use both views, so you can’t conclude “most users only use OpenGL”.

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Well, I know some features are only in legacy, and I never stated only. I said most used.

I was curious how many that were spending more time in legacy than in GAL, seems not that many.

I did choose ‘switching, between views’ although I’m way more in Legacy than OpenGL…
Why?
I know that legacy is on it’s way out and I need to work in OpenGL from some point onward.
Also OpenGL has gotten better in the nightlies (track clearance visible now, grid points instead of just grid lines selecteable for background…).

I started with kicad after the 4.x release so i never really used legacy. This means i do not know what i might miss. The reason (other than licensing) i switched from eagle to kicad is the interactive router. I will put up with a lot of problems just to have this one feature. (The first time i moved part of a trace in interactive drag and all other traces that would have been in the way was magical.)

For a tool like “add tracks and vias” legacy offers all itsd possibilities within the tool.

In OpenGL, I must switch tools, from “add tracks and vias” to “arrow” every time I need to delete a segment.

In legacy, with the selecting tool (arrow), the cursor snaps to the grid, same as with “add tracks and vias”. In OpenGL only “add tracks and vias” snaps to the grid while the selecting tool works in “analog mode” moving smoothily to anywhere.

I’m also used to legacy transparency of tracks and zones. I think transparency will be improved in OpenGL (if not already done in the last nighties).

I use OpenGL canvas mainly for interactive routing, differential pairs and zone drawing.

So I switch from legacy to OpenGL and work in legacy most of the time.

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8 posts were merged into an existing topic: OpenGL vs Legacy differences in Nightly

Preferences->display and hide->Always display cursor :slight_smile:

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