KiCad 7.0.0 Download Now Available!

On Sunday, February 12th, the KiCad development team released KiCad 7.0.0! This major release comes just slightly over a year from version 6. And while less significant of an upgrade than that release, KiCad 7 is no slouch. With over 1,200 issues resolved, powerful new features, and improvement to some existing functionality. While you are waiting for it to download in the background, here are the improvements that caught my attention.

What is KiCad?

KiCad is a cross-platform, open-source electronic design automation (EDA) tool. Some people also called an "eCAD" tool to indicate its focus on electronic design. At the core, there is a schematic editor and PCB designer. The suite has additional tools built around those, such as symbol and footprint editors, calculators, and an interface for SPICE simulations. Version 6 introduced KiCad's first plugin manager, and now KiCad 7 upgrades the feature with automatic updates.

I have been using KiCad since version 4. One of the reasons I prefer it over other EDA software is the vast improvements each major (and even minor!) release brings. For example, version 5 dramatically improved usability, and Version 6 significantly bolstered the feature set. One change the KiCad development team has embraced is shorter release cycles, which we see in the relatively short cycle time from 6 to 7.

The KiCad blog has a very long list of new features. And you can also check out the GitLab issues for extreme detail of what changed. Below are some features I noticed while using the nightly builds leading up to the KiCad 7 release.

PCB Changes

First and foremost is the "Properties Panel" in PCB. It makes properties, like position or visibility, readily available when clicking on footprints or other elements. Furthermore, you can modify them directly without opening the "Edit" dialog. While that alone is lovely, the more practical aspect is that if you select multiple elements, you can update their similar properties simultaneously. So, for example, you can quickly move individual line segments to another layer. Unfortunately, the Schematic editor does not have similar functionality (yet?).

Another change is a form of auto-completion that will not embarrass. First, while drawing a trace, you can have the segment auto-complete. KiCad calls it "Attempt to Finish." While drawing a track, press the "F" hotkey! This time-saving feature is fantastic when you're directly in line with an IC's pin or pad. Alternatively, if there are multiple pins, you can click a footprint and press "Shift-F," and KiCad will attempt to route all signals between them!

KiCad 7 also gave the text tools some attention. The notable improvement is knockout or inverse text. And the second is support for custom fonts. With previous versions, Greg Davill's KiBuzzard plugin provided some of this capability. And even though knockout is native, KiBuzzard still has a few other tricks that make it worth installing.

Schematic

On the surface, it might seem like the PCB editor received the most attention for the KiCad 7 release. (And maybe it did.) However, it also received many new improvements.

Orthogonal dragging means that when you click a symbol and press "G," the existing lines and connections follow an orthogonal path. (In the past, the wires would awkwardly rubberband.) While certainly not perfect, this feature works so well that I used it for almost a day before I realized it was happening! Also, now you can draw 45-degree and arbitrary-angle wires. The hotkey "Shift-Space" changes the wire type.

If you have ever made a complex schematic, you know how quickly overlapping wires make things unreadable. With KiCad 7, nets in the schematic can have customized colors. For example, in the picture above, each "bus," power rail, and ground has a unique color defined. You assign these colors by adding them to a net class.

Annotations are now automatic in KiCad 7. And from my experience, somewhat intelligent. The annotations automatically increment from the last one you created. It is a simple but welcomed addition.

Like with the PCB editor, the Text objects have some upgrades. First, they also support custom fonts. Next, you can turn them into hyperlinks to help find supporting documentation easier. Additionally, a new "Text Box" object simplifies making headers in a schematic by creating a border around the box.

KiCad

A potentially controversial inclusion is the tool Sentry. It is an open-sourced platform for capturing usage analytics. The developers state that no design files are captured. Primarily, it is for capturing crash reports. At the moment, it appears only the Windows versions are using it.

A command line tool called "kicad-cli" enables the scripting of actions in both the Schematic and PCB editors. These changes should allow more effortless automation than the previously required custom Python scripts.

For even more feature changes, check out the KiCad 7 announcement blog.

Download Now!

Overall, KiCad 7 represents a significant step in development. The incredible development team continues to add new capabilities, improve existing workflows, and fix many bugs along the way. In addition, KiCad 7 is available as direct downloads today. (Package repositories may have it available later.) Lastly, for those like me, who WERE using KiCad nightly, it might be time to switch branches. The team is ready to break things as they shift toward version eight!