After a year of development, the release of the free automated design software for printed circuit boards KiCad 7.0.0 has been published. This is the first significant release formed after the project came under the wing of the Linux Foundation. Builds are prepared for various Linux distributions, Windows, and macOS. The code is written in C++ using the wxWidgets library and is distributed under the GPLv3 license.
KiCad provides tools for editing electrical schematics and printed circuit boards, 3D visualization of boards, working with electrical circuit element libraries, manipulating Gerber-format templates, simulating electronic circuit operations, editing printed circuit boards, and project management. The project also provides libraries of electronic components, footprints, and 3D models. According to some printed circuit board manufacturers, about 15% of orders are received with schematics prepared in KiCad.
Among the changes in the new release:
- The schematics, printed circuit boards, and format frame editors now allow the use of any system fonts.
- Support for text blocks has been added to the schematics and printed circuit board editors.
- Support for the 3Dconnexion SpaceMouse, a type of mouse manipulator for navigating three-dimensional and two-dimensional environments, has been added. Specific SpaceMouse manipulations are available in the schematic editor, symbol library, printed circuit board editor, and 3D viewer. Working with the SpaceMouse is currently only available on Windows and macOS (future versions are planned to support Linux using libspacenav).
- Information collection about the application's performance is being ensured for reporting during crashes. The Sentry platform is used to track events, collect error information, and generate crash dumps. The data sent regarding KiCad's crashes is processed using the Sentry cloud service (SaaS). Future plans include organizing telemetry collection with performance metrics that reflect how long various commands take to execute based on Sentry. Reporting is currently only conducted in builds for Windows and requires explicit user consent (opt-in).
- The Plugin and Content Manager has added the ability to automatically check for updates for installed packages and display a notification suggesting their installation. By default, the check is disabled and requires activation in the settings.
- Support for file movement in Drag & Drop mode has been added to the project interface, schematics, printed circuit board editors, Gerber file viewer, and format frame editor.
- Builds for macOS have been provided, specifically for Apple devices based on the Apple M1 and M2 ARM chips.
- A separate kicad-cli utility has been added for use in scripts and automating command-line actions. Functions are provided for exporting schematic and printed circuit board elements in various formats.
- The editors for schematics and symbols now support primitives with rectangles and circles.
- Behavior during orthogonal dragging has been enhanced (when moving tracks, they are now placed only horizontally with angular transitions and avoiding symbols).
- The symbol editor has expanded capabilities related to the pin table. It now allows for filtering pins based on measurement units, changing the measurement units of pins from the table, creating and deleting pins in a symbol group, and viewing the number of grouped pins.
- A new ERC check has been added to issue a warning when placing a symbol using an incompatible grid (for example, grid mismatches can lead to connection issues).
- A mode has been added for rotating the conductor exactly 45 degrees (previously only straight or arbitrary angle rotations were supported).
- A 'Do Not Place' (DNP) mode has been added to mark symbols on the schematic that will not be included in the generated component placement files. DNP symbols are highlighted on the schematic in a lighter color.
- A Simulation Model editor has been added, allowing users to configure simulation model parameters in a graphical mode without needing to insert text descriptions into the schematic.
- The ability to link symbols to an external database using the ODBC interface has been added. Symbols from different schematics can now link to a shared library.
- Support for displaying and searching custom fields has been added to the symbol selection window.
- The ability to use hyperlinks in the schematic has been added.
- Improved PDF format support. The PDF viewer has added support for a bookmarks section (table of contents). The ability to export information about schematic symbols to PDF has been implemented. Support for external and internal links has been added.
- A footprint consistency check has been added, identifying footprints that differ from the associated library.
- A separate tab with a list of ignored DRC tests has been added to the boards and landing page editors.
- Support for radial sizes has been added.
- The ability to invert text objects on the printed circuit board has been added.
- An option for automatic zone filling has been added.
- Tools for printed circuit boards have been improved. Added the ability to display on an image background to simplify copying outlines of the board or the placement of mounting holes from the reference board during reverse engineering. Full unrouting support for mounting holes and automatic track completion has been added.
- A new panel for mask search and object filtering has been added to the board editor.
- A new properties modification panel has been added to the board editor.
- Tools for spreading, packaging, and moving mounting holes have been improved.
- The STEP export tool has been migrated to a common PCB parsing engine with KiCad.
Source: opennet.ru
