I’m experiencing several inconveniences in attempting to use the V5.99 nightlies on a prior V5.1.5 design.
It is so bad that I am going to have to recover in 5.1.9 from a saved archive.
Is my nightly just a lone bad apple? Is there something that I should avoid doing?
Any other comments/suggestions are welcome.
it would help if you described the problems you’re facing.
Edit: if this issue describes what you’re seeing, try again with tomorrow’s nightly
Ohh, probably not. 
Which is why I specifically avoided giving any details that may have given any indication to go in any specific direction.
I do have this though:
Two things were wrong with this when opened with V5.99 nightly.
1)This screen-grab shows (V5.1.9) the 1 error message, that is expected for the circuit in question; it is a non-issue.
V5.99 showed, if I remember right, 38 additional error messages; after I thought to run ERC after adding a single pull-up resistor.
I will restore a backup of my personal libraries as I know there was an issue with this in the past that I may have been affected by.
Thanks for the comments.
There are many new ERC checks in 5.99. There also could be bugs causing more ERC warnings to be shown than should be shown. Without knowing any details about what you are experiencing, it’s hard to say…
I picked 2 issues that seemed to be closer to being a root problem. I got so far up the tree that there was no telling what lower main branch had been hit by lightning.
I’ve never had this many issues with a nightly that was getting close to a new version release. I’ve already reverted to a backup of my main project from a recent KiCad archive and am currently in the process of file syncing some storage devices so that I can be confident that my custom libraries are intact. Then I will restore/sync my custom libraries and use different paths for the different versions.
I’ve never had the need before to go to spend the time on such measures on other KiCad version upgrades.
I know full well that I am playing with dragons; and I did full well come across a fire breathing dragon that burnt my eyebrows off. Yet, I am not afraid of dragons, because I have other, state of the art, shields to deploy such that the dragon should be wary of it’s own eyebrows.
It’s still not clear what your problems are. If you explained more someone could help.
I suspect many of the ERC errors are for things that were not checked in 5.1 It’s hard to say without more detail of what the errors are.
If these are bugs that you’re describing there’s no way anyone can fix them based on the descriptions you are giving.
Exactly, such a post helps no-one
Also who said kicad was near release and equally there is no correlation between the present quality and the time to release … A crazy sprint could occur and shut off the active 300odd (reported) bugs. A RELEASE-CANDITATE isn’t even released yet. There is a post somewhere on these forums about what to call the present state and it’s somewhere between alpha and beta. Likewise the same thread had a correlation between previous releases and their state AND release and it was something like 6months. That’s not to say it would be released in 6months… It could be next month, it could be next year… Its once the codebase reaches a viable point. What does help is clear, concise bugreports on concerns found (assuming you want them fixed)
What I will say is the kicad Devs are fantastic at responding to bugs and reacting to bugs. I had a big closed within 5min of opening the other day… But todo that they sort of need to know what the issue is.
Most of my reports were based upon opening 5.1.x designs so much so at one point a 5.1.6 design (with 8viable DRC violations ) had over 900… Now? It was 8 (plus silkscreen violations) but this has now increased to around 20 as there was a change in what a courtyard violation is (touching Vs crossing)
Can you share the original design (project) which you open with 5.99 and with which you have those problems?
Nightlies are nightlies because there may be dragons about.
That is the main reason for releasing those nightlies. To hunt those dragons so they can be squashed.
I have some difficulty in understanding your attitude. What does this mean:
It seems your project is so secretive that you don’t even want to disclose what sort of problems you are experiencing in your project. While the best analysis can be made if you just share the whole project (as eelik asked)
I am also not going to guess what your problem might be (such as gkeeth) and craftyjon, who is thinking about ERC changes.
Another option is to make a copy of your problematic project, then cripple it by deleting some secretive parts, replace your highly complex PCB outline with a simple rectangle and such things, then check if the problem is still present in the crippled project and post that.
Every now and then a serious bug slips through into some specific nightly version. I think there was one recently, but I forgot what it was, as it got squished the same day. The only reason I remember it is because it got me thinking about diving deeper into Linux package management, to backup the packages of a specific (working) KiCad-nightly.
It does seem that many people are not understanding the point of my post here. I did not have just ONE problem, I had MULTIPLE seemingly unrelated issues. The issues were significant enough that, in my opinion, it was best for me to revert back to older know stable versions; including libraries.
While not a paid professional, I do know how to write and troubleshoot code. For me to take such drastic measures to fix my project should be seen as a welcome warning to others who may be considering using the nightlies.
Many that have replied seem to be reading more into my OP then intended. I knowingly went to go play with a dragon and it went just about as expected…
In your original post, you asked:
Is my nightly just a lone bad apple? Is there something that I should avoid doing?
This makes it sound like you are looking for help with a problem. Why does it surprise you that people point out when you haven’t given enough information for them to provide any help?
It is not clear whether the problems you speak about are bugs or just differences from 5.1. If they are bugs, they will likely never get fixed if you don’t report them (meaning describe them in detail on the issue tracker)
I am still confused with this… “issues” were spotted but the OP doesn’t want to share information about them… Kicad is presently alpha/beta and without such feedback when the rc come and iss1 there is a chance such issue will still exist…
Ahh?
Maybe I was not clear enough.
Items in the schematic seemingly changed locations.
This caused a significant number of ERC errors.
In the end this sounds like one problem, not many. Of course misplaced items cause ERC errors.
You haven’t answered if you can share the design or not. It would be easy to test; without it it’s impossible to tell what’s wrong if nobody else hasn’t had the same problem.
Maybe I am too stupid to know that I got into deep trouble when I moved from a stable release to the nightlies. I do not do coding at all. I have encountered bugs which were obviously bugs and I do not recommend nightlies for anyone who needs to deliver for a paycheck. (However I did deliver for a paycheck after having committed to the nightlies.) I encountered issues yes but have no regrets about diving into the nightlies and enjoyed the improved (mal)functionality.
I produced good (albeit simple) boards without difficulty using:
kicad-r17012.9a4f92dfd9-x86_64-lite.exe
and I am now using
kicad-r20283.6cc39d8011-x86_64-lite.exe
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