New to KiCAD having gone through a considerable learning curve and created my first project. Sent it off to JCLPCB and it worked with any changes.
Anyway what I want to be able to do is use this V1 revision project and expand its functionality so I thought I would be able to save the V1 project and “save as” V2 but it doesn’t appear to be that easy. Or I have missed something obvious.
Just want to add a dozen or so components to the schem and stretch the existing PCB to accomodate the added components and create a V2 and keep ideally the V1 project as as the final version it.
Is what I am trying to do possible? I am using KiCAD version 5.0.0
When you have a finished project it is always a good idea to archive it.
When you archive a project, think about what kind of data yo want in your archive / backup.
I would start with a text file with dates and changes to keep track of different revisions.
If the Gerbers have been used to manufacture a PCB I would also archive them, or else they can easily be reconstructed when needed.
I would always add an SVG or PDF of the schematic.
I have some old projects from the DOS age without software to open or view the schematics. If you want to share a schematic (or whole project) on for example gitlab then for others a pdf is easier to get a quick overview of the schematic than the KiCad schematic file. Not everybody has KiCad installed.
There have been problems in the past with old schematics and changing library symbols (Always archive the Project-cache.lib file with your project!), and a pdf of the schematic is an easy reminder of what damaged parts should look like.
After you’ve archived your project (in at least 2 different places) you can decide whether to simply keep on working on the same project as a new revision, or make a copy of all the project files into another folder.
Or better:
Extract your newly made archive into a new folder and use that to start your new project. This way you will verify if the archive is correct.
One option is to use for example git versioning system. Add tag to a certain version and it’s easy to go back. Or create a new branch and you can continue development with both versions independently. If you also use something like gitlab service (no fee even for private projects) you get robust backup system and possibility to easily work on several machines, for free.
I do copy the last “Released” project folder to a new one, which is a starting point for a new revision. This way I can easily go back to previous versions if needed.
Eg. MyProjects\Device1\REV1.0, then copy it over to MyProjects\Device1\REV2.0 and edit from there.
@ paulvdh Great suggestion on the exported schematics/gerbers in an universal format for easy peeking.
I experimented this afternoon with copying the current version files then pasting the copy a new folder then changed the revision number of each file.
Everything appears to be working fine. I have started expanding the schematic and updated the PCB with a few components and all seem ok.
I am slowly starting to get my head around github so this was perhaps the easier of the suggested options however Paul suggestion made a bunch of sense given you are backing your projects up off site. As I said I need to spend more time researching the whole github scene.
Thanks for all the suggestions and assistance, it is much appreciated.
