What version to use with Mac OS 11?

Hi,

What version can I use on Mac OS 11, and will that version be able to open and work on files that are created in KiCad version 8?

Thanks,

G

I guess you can’t open any files made with KiCad 8 in Mac OS 11. I’m not sure but I guess so. It may seem a bit strange as long long time ago for example Cadsoft/and Autodesk Eagle could open just about every version with any newer or older Cad Software, in about any OS back and forth.

These two companys consisted of multiple developers. KiCad has just a hand full of devs working on it

@GxN You need KiCad 8 (or newer) to open files created with KiCad 8. While it is not officially supported, did you try installing KiCad 8 on your Mac? Are you sure you can’t update your Mac to version 12?

Taken from KiCad’s download page.

On the other hand, if you can’t install a newer Mac OS on you Mac I guess you know you can run virtual machines, for example, with Parallels Desktop or similar and there you install any KiCad Windows version. This way you can then open about any Kicad file. Though using KiCad in the windows environment is not very nice compared to using it in macOS, if you ask me :slight_smile:

Thanks for the replies. It’s a mid 2014 Macbook Pro which still runs fine, but according to Apple can only run up to OS 11.

G

You can use OpenCore to install more current MacOS versions, but this is probably not the place to discuss that.

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Whilst not wanting to add to the noise, I agree - Open Core Patcher has extended the useful life of a couple of macs for me. You need to optimise the hardware a bit - replace HDDs with an SSD, for instance and bump up the RAM from the bare minimum but for a modest price you can turn a boat anchor back into useable hardware. No problems running KiCad 8.0.6 on Sequoia 15.1 on a iMac 10,1 27” 2009 - no speed demon but the big screen is great and it doubles up as a media server.

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