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KiCad 4.0.0 Is Out!

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. KiCad binaries will be available for download for Windows, OSX and Linux in the near future. Changes Brief A short summary of updates between KiCad 4.0.0 and the so called 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 (http://ci.kicad.org ) 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 (http://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.”

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