Weird symbols printed for logic gates

Hi, I just installed Kicad 7. When I print logic gates they show a weird symbol within.

First image is a snip from the schematic editor; second image is from the “print preview”.

I have no clue on what’s going on; I tried googling around but I cannot find the right words to describe this behavior (not a native english speaker here).

Any clue?

Can you post the version info - Help / About.

If you zoom in do you still see the strange lines? Are they also there on a print?

Thank you for answering!
Yes, they show up also when zooming in (see image).
Also they are there on my prints.

Application: KiCad Schematic Editor x64 on x64

Version: 7.0.5, release build

Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.2.2
FreeType 2.12.1
HarfBuzz 6.0.0
FontConfig 2.14.1
libcurl/7.88.1-DEV Schannel zlib/1.2.13

Platform: Windows 11 (build 22000), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW

Build Info:
Date: May 27 2023 02:48:13
wxWidgets: 3.2.2 (wchar_t,wx containers)
Boost: 1.81.0
OCC: 7.6.3
Curl: 7.88.1-DEV
ngspice: 40
Compiler: Visual C++ 1936 without C++ ABI

Build settings:
KICAD_SPICE=ON

Hello and welcome @andreamazzai

You are seeing the various sections that, when joined, form the symbol. See below:

ksnip_20230607-122104

I dismantled one and colored the sections for clarity.
I’m still not sure why you are seeing the outlines of each section inside the symbol.

Are the symbols from a Kicad library?
Please check to see if you get the same result from the 4000 library. 4001 & 4011 are good examples.

I know really nothing about how graphic acceleration works but can’t it be connected with using/not using Accelerated graphics. May be some incompatibility between KiCad asking graphic card to accelerate some task and how that task is really done.
It can be changed in Preferences - Preferences - Schematic Editor - Display Options - Rendering Engine.

Thank you for answering, jmk!

I experience the same issue with 4xxx series. The symbols come from the standard libraries, I did not tamper with them. See the jsut-added symbols here:

It is worth noting that Kicad 6.x did not show this weird behavior.

Thank you, Piotr!
I will try to disable acceleration.
As I just wrote to jmk, Kicad 6.x did not show this weird behavior. I am sure that Kicadf 6.x graphic acceleration was enabled.

You said you have the same bug when you export them to PDF (print and then select PDF printer)? Can you upload a PDF with this bug? (just to make sure it is a problem of KiCad or export, not a problem of your PDF reader and print preview of your OS).

You have at least 2 options to create a PDF, one is by using ctrl-P or Datei → Print and later you select Print as File and export a PDF. The other is by clicking Datei → Plot. Do you have the same problem in both of them or only with ctrl-P?

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Hello Johanne, thank you for answering!

Sorry I am a new user and therefore not allowed to upload files or attach more that one image), hence find below the three snips “bundled” together.

On “File / Plot / PDF” the printout is fine.
On “File / Print / Print to MS PDF printer” I get the issue as snipped from Adobe Reader.
Odd enough, I just discovered that “File / Print / Print Preview” in Black/White shows no issue.

I am a bit puzzled. As I said, I never got this behaviour with Kicad 6, that I removed last weekend and installed v7.

OOPS! I was sure that I had uninstalled Kicad 6, but actually I did not… could this cause any conflict?

On Windows, you should be able to have V7 and V6 at the same time.
I have both in Win10

You have promoted yourself to “Basic User” with the time you have spent on this forum, see here, so upload away now :slightly_smiling_face:

Sure, here we go :blush:
First attachment - print to PDF, Color
Second attachment - print to PDF, B&W
Third attachment - Plot, color
MS Print to PDF - color.pdf (85.9 KB)
MS Print to PDF - black white.pdf (83.8 KB)
BEAM v1-Clock.pdf (237.2 KB)

Thank you for looking into this,
Andrea

@andreamazzai : I think you have discovered a bug in the printing-code, I have replicated the unwanted lines in the print-output for two diffferent virtual pdf-printer drivers (edocprintpro & MS_Print_to_pdf).
I see this behaviour on version v7.0.5, but not on the development version v7.99

If you want you could open a gitlab-bugreport, this bug is well suited for a first bugreport (reproducible, can be good explained with some pictures).

For such a bugreport:

  • use the integrated command Kicad–>Help–>Report bug. This opens a prepopulated gitlab issue with the kicad-version already filled in.
  • Attach a simple example project (Kicad main manager -->File–>Archive project) which contains a schematic with your 4001/4011 symbols
  • include two pictures side by side as comparison: view from the kicad-canvas (with good looking symbols) and than the disturbed picture fro the pdf-output
  • fill out the “reproduction steps” as detailed as possible (not only “print to pdf”, but with click this button, click this, use this checkbox → than get this or that result)

@andreamazzai

If not already, you will have to register with Gitlab before reporting the issue.

This is only a few painless minutes. Follow @mf_ibfeew 's instructions “Kicad > Help > Report bug”, then you will be asked to either log in, or create an account. Just follow the instructions. :slightly_smiling_face:

Thank you mf_ibfeew, I have submitted bug report 14915

Thank you jmk, I have submitted bug report 14915

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I see a commit to 7.0 that should fix this, the latest Testing should include the patch

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