KiCad 4.0.7 does not have a release file error

[Marco Ciampa]

Can somebody address this request or at least point to the right
direction of how to solve it in the easiest way?

----- Forwarded message from Rahul Paknikar <srah...@gmail.com> -----

Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2022 18:06:47 +0530
From: Rahul Paknikar <srah...@gmail.com>
To: cia...@posteo.net
Cc: SUMANTO KAR <jeetsum...@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: KiCad 4.0.7 does not have a release file error

Dear Marco,

As Sumanto mentioned, we have been using KiCad for the eSim EDA tool for
several years. During these years, we made a library of ~1000 schematics
designed in KiCad's latest version (v4.0.7) at that time. So, to remain
consistent and portable with our circuits library, we continued using KiCad
4 based on this old version.

We take this opportunity to request your suggestions on feasible ways to
port these circuit schematics to KiCad 5 or 6.

On Thu, Nov 3, 2022 at 3:44 PM SUMANTO KAR <jeetsum...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Yes, truly KiCad 4.0.7 is very old. But we are from an Open Source
> Community(https://esim.fossee.in/home). We are using KiCad 4.0.7 as a
> frontend for the Open Source Tool. So we need it.
>
> Thanks & Regards,
> Sumanto Kar
>
> On Thu, 3 Nov 2022, 15:39 Marco Ciampa, <cia...@posteo.net> wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Nov 03, 2022 at 01:22:22PM +0530, SUMANTO KAR wrote:
>> > Hi!!
>> >
>> > We are getting the following error 'does not have a Release file' error
>> > while installing KiCad:
>> > [image: image.png]
>> >
>> > Kindly look into it.
>> >
>> > Thanks & Regards,
>> > Sumanto Kar
>>
>> Why are you trying to install KiCad 4? It is way old! Even what comes
>> with your distribution (that is usually not so up to date) is newer!
>> Install KiCad 6!
>>
>> https://www.kicad.org/download/ubuntu/
>>
>> sudo add-apt-repository --yes ppa:kicad/kicad-6.0-releases
>> sudo apt update
>> sudo apt install --install-recommends kicad
>>
>> --
>>
>> Amike,
>> Marco Ciampa
>>
>
--
With regards,
Rahul P.

----- End forwarded message -----

--

Amike,
Marco Ciampa

[Jon Evans]

See also https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/issues/12820

If those users want to keep using 4.0.7 they need to host it themselves.

-Jon

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[Steven A. Falco]

On 11/3/22 11:38 AM, Marco Ciampa wrote:
> Can somebody address this request or at least point to the right
> direction of how to solve it in the easiest way?

I suspect the biggest issue would be the libraries, as they have changed over time. For example, I had a design that used:

R_0603_1608Metric_Pad1.05x0.95mm_HandSolder

but that apparently changed (way back in 2020, IIRC) to:

R_0603_1608Metric_Pad0.98x0.95mm_HandSolder.kicad_mod

[Jon Evans]

KiCad 6.x should still be able to open these files even if they used old symbols and footprints.  I'm not sure they would need "porting" other than saving in the updated format.  New schematics can be made with new symbols/footprints as desired.

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[Steven A. Falco]

On 11/3/22 12:11 PM, Jon Evans wrote:
> KiCad 6.x should still be able to open these files even if they used old symbols and footprints.  I'm not sure they would need "porting" other than saving in the updated format.  New schematics can be made with new symbols/footprints as desired.

True, but if you have to modify an old design, when you go to assign footprints to substituted parts, you won't have access to the footprints you had previously used. In at least one case I ran into, the new footprint was larger, even though the part would have fit just fine with the older footprint. I had to grab a copy of the old footprint from an archive to avoid laying out that area of the board again.

I'm not saying it is impossible, but it can add extra work. I guess it really depends on what folks need to do with their old designs.

I keep VMs of older copies of Fedora so I can run older versions of KiCad (and even Eagle on very rare occasions) if needed. Fortunately, it doesn't happen often in my case.

Steve

[Jon Evans]

> you won't have access to the footprints you had previously used.

You can make a project-local library and export the old footprints to it if desired.  I think that is a reasonable workflow.

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[Steven A. Falco]

On 11/3/22 02:14 PM, Jon Evans wrote:
> > you won't have access to the footprints you had previously used.
>
> You can make a project-local library and export the old footprints to it if desired.  I think that is a reasonable workflow.

That works well. Thanks.

Steve

[Kevin Cozens]

> Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2022 18:06:47 +0530 > From: Rahul Paknikar
> <srah...@gmail.com>
>

> As Sumanto mentioned, we have been using KiCad for the eSim EDA tool for
> several years. During these years, we made a library of ~1000 schematics

> designed in KiCad's latest version (v4.0.7) at that time.[snip] We take

> this opportunity to request your suggestions on feasible ways to port
> these circuit schematics to KiCad 5 or 6.

First step is make sure you have good backups of the schematics and the part
libraries. I would include having up-to-date printouts so you can easily
refer to them when checking the schematics in the latest version of KiCad.
Don't uninstall the old program when you install the new one.

Be prepared to do some work on the updated schematics. Even for
standard parts some of the schematic symbols changed. In updating one of my
old schematics I found the resistor symbol had changed. It was smaller so
the wires needed to be extended one grid square on each end to reconnect all
the R in my schematics. I have also found the automatic remapping process
hasn't always worked that well. I have several schematics where all the
parts used are all linked to a rescue library because the automatic
remapping process wasn't even able to find basic items like standard R and C
symbols.

--
Cheers!

Kevin.

http://www.ve3syb.ca/ | "Nerds make the shiny things that
https://www.patreon.com/KevinCozens | distract the mouth-breathers, and
| that's why we're powerful"
Owner of Elecraft K2 #2172 |
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