KiCad 4.0.0 Is Out!

Written by The KiCad Development Team

Published 2015-11-29

We’ve just released the long-awaited KiCad stable release, version 4.0.0! The announcement can be read on the developer’s mailing list archive.

Version 4.0.0 is made from the product branch BZR 6336. This is 148 commits after the last release candidate, RC2. These are all changes to improve stability and usability of KiCad.

KiCad binaries will be available for download for Windows, OSX and Linux in the near future, see the download page for guidance.

Instructions for packagers can be found on the download page describing how to build from source and its subpages.

Changes Brief

A short summary of updates between KiCad 4.0.0 and the 'old stable' follows below:

Major Items

New graphics rendering backend GAL (OpenGL and Cairo) [currently pcbnew only and does not yet support all legacy tools]
New s-expression based pcb format (.kicad_pcb)
New footprint library format (.pretty folder with .kicad_mod footprints)
Updated footprint editor (only usable with GAL renderer)
More advanced footprint manager concept called footprint library table (fp-lib-table)
Ability to download footprints on the fly from git repositories
Official libraries are now stored on github and regularly updated
Awesome/Advanced Push and Shove (PnS) router (only usable with GAL renderer)
Interactive differential trace routing and tuning
Interactive trace length tuning
Much more realistic 3D board rendering
Intelligent library search with preview in Eeschema
Initial Python api for Pcbnew

Infrastructure Updates

New website
Continuous integration tools via Jenkins
Nightly builds for windows, OS X, fedora, ubuntu, and openSUSE (see downloads for information)

Minor Items

Wording of many dialogs and errors has been improved
Some excessive dialogs have been removed
New icons for many tools
New schematic library browser
Docs now available in several different formats online (https://docs.kicad.org )
More intelligent component search in EESchema
Component rescue helper to identify when components have changed in EESchema and rescue the old version
Undo limit default increased and now configurable

Note

Symbols have changed size, been renamed, etc to follow the new KiCad library conventions so you need to take care when working with older schematics if you used the symbols packaged with KiCad.

The new pcb format cannot be loaded in older versions of KiCad.

List of All Contributors

This is a complete list of all contributors who have submitted at least one patch since 18th May 2013 or in other words "the old stable". We thank you for your contributions no matter how small.

Andrew Zonenberg
Adam Wolf
Александр Голубев
Alexander Lunev
Andrey Fedorushkov
Angus Gratton
Ashley Mills
Balint Kiss
Ben Harris
Bernhard Stegmaier
Blair Bonnett
Brian Sidebotham
Camille Delbegue
Carl Poirier
Chris Pavlina
Cirilo Bernardo
Colin Cooper
Damien Espitallier
Daniel Dawid Majewski
Dick Hollenbeck
Dimitris Lampridis
Edwin van den Oetelaar
Eldar Khayrullin
Fabrizio Tappero
Garth Corral
Gilbert J.M. Forkel
Hartmut Henkel
Henner Zeller
Henri Valta
Henrik Nyberg
J. Morio Sakaguchi
Jan Dubiec
Jean-Pierre Charras
Jean-Samuel Reynaud
Johannes Maibaum
John Beard
Jon Neal
Jonathan Jara-Almonte
Jose Ingnacio
Joseph Chen
Karl Thorén
Kinichiro Inoguchi
Kirill Mavreshko
Константин Барановский
Lachlan Audas
LordBlick
Lorenzo Marcantonio L.
Maciej Suminski
Marco Ciampa
Marco Hess
Marco Mattila
Marco Serantoni
Mario Luzeiro
Mark Roszko
Markus Hitter
Martin d' Allens
Martin Janitschke
Mathias Grimmberger
Maurice W. (easyw)
Michael Beardsworth
Michael Narigon
Michal Jahelka
Miguel Angel Ajo
Mikhail Karpenko
Moses McKnight
Nick Østergaard
Nicolas Planel
Paul D. Evens
Paulo Henrique Silva
Povilas Kanapickas
Ricardo Crudo
Robert Yates
Ronald Sousa
Ruben De Smet
Simon Richter
Simon Schubert
Simon Wells
Thiadmer Riemersma
Tomasz Włostowski
Wayne Stambaugh

Release Notes