Post from the KiCad Blog: Features Coming to KiCad 7
One of the reasons I recommend KiCad to anyone who wants to make more than one PCB (in their life) is because of how fast it is developing. Compared to any other options, each major release has brought significant functionality AND usability to the tool. Starting with version 5, the minor updates became extremely frequent. With version 6, there was a promise to shorten the major release cycle. And based on the minor release in the 6.0 branch, the team struck a strong balance between fixing bugs and adding quality-of-life improvements. They call it “cherry picking” when adding a feature from the 6.99 (or pre-7.0) branch.
That promise of more frequent major releases appears to be coming true.
- KiCad 4: November 2015
- KiCad 5: August 2018
- KiCad 6: December 2021
- KiCad 7: January 2023 (est)
This announcement lists some new features and their contributors in KiCad 7.0’s upcoming release. Plus, the announcement hints that the release could be as early as January 2023. Regardless, my bet would be a Q1 release. And oh boy. There are so many things in this update I cannot wait to start using.
I am looking forward to the plugin manager having a (more?) robust update capability, the command line interface (kicad-cli), auto-complete routes (in PCB), and the properties panel (in PCB). Plus, many other minor features.
I’m curious about the database integration that is mentioned in this article. It sounds like the hooks to access an inventory management system. But I’m not sure how adaptable it will be.
Check the announcement post for a complete list and some demos!
Is anyone else watching the KiCad 7 development? What are you excited to see? Or even what do you wish they would work on next?
