I wish to start by extending my congratulations to the developers on Kicad 6.0. It is a very significant jump on the previous version and is warmly received by many. Great work all round !
My pcb design work has been with Protel DXP for many years. I speak with reference to this program.
The workflow I am used to is opening multiple projects which are shown on a left-hand pane. The files asociated with those projects can all be seen in a tree-structure arrangement in that left-hand pane. I then open a multitude of files which are seen with their own tab across the page at the top of the viewing area.
Are there plans to have this kind of workflow in Kicad ?
I am used to having a good number of files and projects open at one time - perhaps 6 projects and 20-odd files.
In Kicad 6 it looks to me as though I need to open an instance of Kicad 6 for each project. The heirarchical schematics are hidden from me in the left-hand pane and I seem to be able to only see each file in turn getting to a lower heirarchical schematic through its parent. I can’t seem to open all the schematics at once even in a single project. It is almost as though I need to open an instance of Kicad for each schematic !!!
In Kicad 6 it looks to me as though I need to open an instance of Kicad 6 for each project.
Yes, one Kicad instance per project. I think it’s kind of familiarization. I personally like this approach (one instance per project and one running program per board/schematic) because it allows to switch with the standard-windows-hotkey Alt-Tab between all the schematics/boards. I know the Multi-document-interface on Altium and it works (for me) not as fast and convenient as the Alt-Tab-switching between program-instances.
Are there plans to have this kind of workflow in Kicad ?
To give you hope for the future: if I remember correctly there are ideas (and even a gitlab issue) to rebuild the UI-system to work with a MDI (multi-document) interface like Protel/altium. If this really gets implemented (and at which time) is another point. And maybe thats the time where I have to relearn the user-interface (and start my complaining…). It seems a program can not always please all users…
The heirarchical schematics are hidden from me in the left-hand pane and I seem to be able to only see each file in turn getting to a lower heirarchical schematic through its parent.
You can open the schematic-navigator and set a Preferences-checkbox to leave it permanent open.
And you are right, an additional listing of the available subsheet-schematic-files in the kicad-manager would be nice to enhance the project-overview.
I can’t seem to open all the schematics at once even in a single project. It is almost as though I need to open an instance of Kicad for each schematic !!!
Yes, you are right. One sheet open at a time. But on the other hand: even if you “open” all schematics at once in Protel - you can only look and work with one schematic at a time. So where is the advance to have all files “open”?
With the mentioned navigator-panel you change with one click from the current schematic to any other schematic. It’s the same click that you need on the file-listing in protel. (Or do you have a 1234"-monitor with all sheets displayed in parallel? this is only a rhetorical question.)
normally the navigator disappears after changing to another schematic sheet. You can enbable permanent view with Preferences → Schematic Editor → Editing Options → Dialog Preferences
I have ticked both options like you indicate on the picture but nothing changes in my Project Files pane. Maybe a reboot ?
No reboot. It doesn’t change the project-pane. The navigator is an overlay-window in the schematic editor. It must be enabled once after every schematic-editor-start.
