What feature are you most looking forward to in Kicad v10?

Software
96

The settings relevant to the actual design on the one hand and the settings for each user (UI etc.) are already mostly separated. The .kicad_prl file has the UI stuff and should be left out from version control, backups etc. If you find something which is in a wrong file, you can start a discussion about it in the forum or file it as an issue.

97

As eelik says, that’s been true for a while. See the file types documentation here for which ones you don’t need under version control.

98

Hi gkeeth and eelik

Thanks for your response. I know the different file types cause I am using KiCad since V4. As an embedded HW and FW developer I also now what files normally go into GIT. Maybe may wish above was not clear enough so I will try in other words.

In our small HW Team I would like to have a setting that all KiCad user have the same “Design Relevant” setup and that this cam out of GIT. Modification after a review go back to GIT.

The Idea is to symlink the local git repo to the KiCad setting location (as ex: ln -s ~/Desktop/eb-kicad/kicad ~/Library/Preferences/ on OSX).

This setup works beside the following things…

For me “Design Relevant” settings are: (jsut some to show the problem)

  • annotation settings (eeschema.json)
  • default fieldnames (eeschema.json)
  • “origin_invert_x_axis”: false (pcbnew.json)
  • “origin_invert_y_axis”: true (pcbnew.json)
  • “origin_mode”: 1 (pcbnew.json)
  • “plot settings” (pcbnew.json)
  • “gen_drill” (pcbnew.json)
  • fp-lib-table
  • sym-lib-table

“Fancy Settings” are:

  • last open files (eeschema.json), (pcbnew.json)
  • last open windows position (eeschema.json), (pcbnew.json)
  • “last_footprint_lib_dir”: (eeschema.json), (pcbnew.json)

Now the problem is that “Design Relevant” and “Fancy Settings” are stored in the same files and therefore it is not possible to have them in GIT or it makes it at least very difficult to track/merge only the important things.

So it would be nice to split the different json files in static and dynamic files. The static files could then go easy to GIT.

I know the big discussion would be then to decide what settings go in which files.

Hope that helps to understand my idea.

1 Like
99

Hi,
The possibility to have git integrated in the kicad UI for librarian, with a dedicated GUI related to the footprint generator that will help to filled all files linked and create footprint, 3d models, populates the merges request.
This to simplify the whole process and to recruit more librarian.

2 Likes
100

V9 will have support for exporting to XAO formats to SALOME:

1 Like
101

I agree, FEM simulation integration is definitely a direction we should be heading.

FYI, not sure if you noticed, there is support for export to SALOME coming in v9:

1 Like
102

Would be great if Kicad integrated simulation with ngscopeclient:

This would improve visualization of simulations and workflow. For instance, after producing real product any custom signal processing you might want to do would already be setup. It also just generally seems like a smoother workflow, and you could directly compare your simulation to reality.

103

May be a plugin approach similar to

could cover this…
@Drinausaur is there any chance to convert your code to a plugin?

1 Like
104

Please, select all capacitors of 100nf with MPN 100nF/25 on a schematic of 9 pages and 625 components.

Altium also allow select multiple components too, is not the focus. There a lot of instances when you need a specific selection. If you use a snapeda footprint, with a lot of garbage fields (providers, alternatives, copyright… etc) maybe you want select all components with a field called “providers”.
The selection tool requested, is not mandatory of usage, is only a tool that can be usefull for the user.

105

If you want to select using “garbage fields”, wouldn’t you be better off using a Data Base?

106

I understand. Sadly many times you have to work with inherited projects. Or sometimes the work is to homogenize projects done by different people at different times.

1 Like
107

As THT and SMD footprints are often radically different in size, I don’t see the value of an “alternate footprint”. Perhaps you want to have an SMD board and another THT board, with a common schematic. That is also a painful process as the underlying database of components would have to be duplicated and edited separately.

108

(little) Alignment aids:

Ever used a mac with Pages or Keynote? It draws crosshairs when moving a picture and snaps to the center relative to another object. It also snaps to the center of a page. You even feel a click in the trackpad.
In KiCad, if I want to make a board visual nice, I can do that with align in the context menu. Personally, I would like some more simple aids to easily align symbols or footprints.

When tracing multiple tracks along side, I have to manually try to evenly space them. Would like some automation with that. (Edit: I saw you can drag multiple tracks in v9 :slight_smile: )

Trace a track between to pins and centering it between it takes more effort than I would like from a tool. It has to do with the grid of course, but it would be much more appealing if a trace runs through the middle.

4 Likes
109

To be clear, posts and hearts on the forum are at most a vibe check.

If you want to show support for a given feature, find it on Gitlab. Most features requested in these threads are already near the top of the popularity list here: Open issues by popularity. Then give it a thumbs up. Do not add a “+1” comment unless you have more information (“I want/need this too” and “any update on this?” is just noise).

Quick list of the big items in this thread I can see issues for:

Also see: Closed issues by popularity for completed big-ticket items. A lot of those were closed within in the last year (meaning they’re v9 additions). There are some things in this thread already done in v9:

There are more, and when there aren’t, do feel free to raise specific (emphasis on the specific) requests at Gitlab.

The good news is, many of these indeed are on the (informal!) v10 hitlist!

27 Likes
110

Thank you johnbeard for taking the time to summarize all in this post,
there are indeed some features requests for stuff i didn’t know i disparately need till now :slight_smile:

111

Most of my PCBs are made and assembled elsewhere. I want to make clear part libraries and BOMs.
Symbols, footprints, library, and a line in the BOM of every component must match exactly.
To me, a good line on the Bill Of Materials is something like this
Manufacturer:
STMicroelectronics
Manufacturer product number
STM32H750VBT6
Distributor:
Digikey
Digikey part number:
497-18110-ND
Description:
ARM® Cortex®-M7 STM32H7 Microcontroller IC 32-Bit Single-Core 480MHz 128KB (128K x 8) FLASH 100-LQFP (14x14)
Price:
€10.14000
Library created:
23.1.2025LM

Stm32h cpus have no second source, but swapping more generic parts is routine. There is no need list every variant on the earth. But sure, it should be possible to edit field names or add fields.

112

@LM21 What is stopping you adding this information already to your Symbol Fields Table ?

113

especially when using database based libraries with a backend like Inventree this can all automatically be populated

1 Like
114

Provided it is not yet implemented (i am a few updates and release notes behind)

I would like this not to happen, just never

afbeelding
afbeelding559×555 11.2 KB

This is what I would like

afbeelding
afbeelding559×569 13.8 KB

Bas

2 Likes
115

Nothing. But at the this moment handling libraries is more difficult than it should be. But it looks it is coming or at least it is on wish list already

And having field names like Field5 or 4 is not good. This came with Raspberry pi libraries.

1 Like