v1.8.3

Important: KiCad 9 support is preliminar. Some new features in KiCad 9 are currently ignored (i.e setting a whole sheet as DNP won't work). Also expect extra messages from KiCad's API (like GetWidth warnings) and missing default colors for User layers > 10 and Inner layers > 30.

Changed

• Default temporal layer for internal use is now "Margin", instead of "User.9"
• Draw Fancy Stackup:
  • Micro vias to look closer to real world, they only span 2 layers and they
    must be stacked to span more layers.
• Renderers:
  • Components marked by the exclude filter, or marked virtual, were excluded
    from the 3D models and solder paste processing, but the docs says this is
    just for BoM (See #772)

Added

• New outputs:
  • ODB: Exports the PCB in ODB++ format (KiCad 9) (#782)
  • IPC2581: Exports the PCB in IPC-2581 (IPC-DPMX) format (KiCad 9)
  • export_3d: Exports the 3D model of the PCB in BREP, GLB, STL, STEP and
    XAO (KiCad 9) (#783)
  • jobset: Runs a KiCad jobset (KiCad 9)
• CLI:
  • --variant to specify which variants will be generated (See #737)
  • --defs-from-project allows using KiCad variables for the preprocessor
    (See #643)
• Variants and filters:
  • Outputs with variants can now specify an exclude_filter in addition to the
    variant. Like it was possible for transform and dnf
• Preflights:
  • consolidate_pcbs: Used to merge PCBs before creating 3D stacked renders
    (#728)
  • expand_in_command option to set_text_variables, used to expand %X
    patterns in the command (#746)
  • check_fields mechanism to check for extra fields (#774)
• Global options:
  • work_layer: to choose the temporal layer for internal operations (#713)
• Internal templates:
  • _KIBOT_DRILL_AUX_ORIGIN option to control drill, position and gerber origin
• Workaround for people using backslashes (i.e. Windows+WSL) (#719) (#607)
  More general than in previous versions.
• Blender Export: option to avoid soldering heatsinks
• Boardview: OBDATA support
• BoM:
  • Field aliases ${QUANTITY} and ${ITEM_NUMBER} for compatibility with
    KiCad's internal BoM.
  • Fields ${DNP}, ${EXCLUDE_FROM_BOARD} and ${EXCLUDE_FROM_SIM}, like
    the ones used by KiCad's internal BoM.
  • Using _kicad_bom_fields in the list of columns now you can import the
    fields from the KiCad's internal BoM.
  • New option group_not_fitted to group not fitted components with fitted
    components. For compatibility with KiCad's internal BoM.
  • New option sort_ascending to sort in reverse order
  • New sort style: kicad_bom, uses the field an ascending used by KiCad's
    BoM
  • ref_range_separator option to configure the character used for reference
    ranges
  • use_ref_ranges alias for use_alt
  • New kicad format to mimic KiCad's internal BoM.
  • right_digits option to control the decimals for position fields (#739)
  • New sort_style named field and sort_field option to sort by one or
    more arbitrary fields.
  • New csv options: (to match KiCad internal BoM functionality)
    • string_delimiter to configure the quote character
    • keep_line_breaks to remove line breaks in fields
    • keep_tabs to remove tabs in fields
• Draw Fancy Stackup:
  • border_thickness: Thickness of the borders of stackup drawing and stackup
    table (#747)
  • A mechanism to set the font, using a text box (#748)
• Drill:
  • Option to don't generate the drill files, so you can generate only the maps
    (#720)
  • Option to generate a drill table (#760)
• Include table:
  • A mechanism to set the font, using a text box (#748)
  • force_font_width to force a font width (#752)
• Navigate Results:
  • New flavor "navigate_results_rb" with a "reactive" look (#768)
• Netlist:
  • OrcadPCB2, Allegro, CADSTAR, PADS, KiCad XML, Spice and Spice model formats
• PCB Print:
  • A mechanism to filter components for a particular layer (#706)
  • Workaround for Ghostscript handling %d wrong when followed by an hex digit
    (#763)
  • Now you can include drill maps using drill_pairs as repeat_layers (#764)
• Report:
  • top_total, bot_total, total_smd, total_tht and total_all
    component counts (See #730)
  • Also versions of the counters for excluded (exc), not fitted (dnp) and
    not changed (dnc) (See #730)
  • total_components template, intended to generate CSV files with component
    counts (See #730)
  • Now you can use expressions like ${V1+V2}
  • mm_digits, mils_digits and in_digits to change the number of digits
    for unit conversions (#745)
  • display_trailing_zeros to show trailing zeros (#745)
  • _cap sufix to capitalize strings (#745)
  • h2h, c2h and c2e Hole to Hole, Hole to Copper and Copper to Edge
    info (KiCad 6+) (#745)
  • pad_drill_pth, pad_drill_npth (and similars) for PTH/NPTH specific
    drill dimensions (#745)
  • csv_remove_leading_spaces to remove leading spaces/tabs after CSV
    separator (useful to generate CSV from a .txt template where elements are
    aligned for easier reading) (#745)
  • A mechanism to get the names of the files generated by an output.
    The variables are named OUTPUT_outpath_INDEX (#761)
• SCH Variant and *SCH Print:
  • A mechanism to paste images from outputs (#714)
• *SCH Print:
  • Default font for KiCad 9 (#691)

Fixed

• Definitions: avoid interpreting empty definitions as the "None" string
  (See #757)
• Guess for 3rd party dir: not just for v6
• SubParts filter:
  • iBoM and Schematic print didn't take it into account (#716)
  • Any output filtering by reference ignored them (#729)
• BoM
  • The field name Reference was accepted, but didn't work
  • Missing footprint information for sub-units (#741)
  • XLSX logo scale (#750)
• Do Not Fit footprint crosses:
  • Problems with footprints where the center isn't the geometric center (#725)
• DRC:
  • Zone refill issues with the new DRC preflight (#759)
• Draw Fancy Stackup:
  • Problems drawing micro vias (#749)
  • Confusing drawing when symmetric vias overlap
• Drill:
  • Via pairs overwritten by PTH files (#758)
• Navigate Results:
  • Problems when using erc: true or drc: true (#742)
• PCB Print:
  • Problems when using the default worksheet and the internal frame plotter
    (#767)
  • Some layer options (use_for_center, sketch_pads_on_fab_layers and
    exclude_filter) not copied on repeated layers
  • sketch_pads_on_fab_layers not inherited from parent when using
    layer names (See #777)