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Re: kicad version and install location

 

 As an author of the flowchart I have to clearly state that most of the complexity stems from the big change in symbol, footprint and 3D model libraries. And the change was for the better, so kudos to the library maintainers. 

And as with any change, the migration across it is going to be bumpy at best.
As for the KiCad installation, I'd leave the configuration folder issue. The workaround might be if the Win installer would set KICAD_CONFIG_HOME to %APPDATA%/kicad/V5 and copy current configuration if it exists (maybe even doing this silently?). This way you'd push the changes to the installer keeping Kicad source unaffected. But as I am not a developer my ideas might be stupid.

Anyhow it would be great if the installation would create separate shortcuts in start menu and on desktop for V5 and leave V4 shortcuts intact.


    On Saturday, 14 July 2018, 04:50:17 CEST, Mark Roszko <mark.roszko@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:  
 
 Wayne,

Guess going to suggest it should be a priority to version the config
into folders.

This is a user made chart on how to install kicad 5 which honestly is
silly it has to even exist lol
https://kicad-info.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/original/2X/d/d6143659e9237fc358588bed761ef3e557454cde.png


On Wed, Jul 11, 2018 at 1:56 PM Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Mark,
>
> I agree with you in principal but this would require some major changes
> to KiCad internally to handle the configuration data the "windows" way.
> I really do not want to push the stable 5 release back any further than
> it already has been.  I'm open to trying to accomplish this as part of
> the 5.1 release if we can implement it soon enough to get some testing
> on it.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Wayne
>
> On 7/8/2018 12:19 AM, Adam Wolf wrote:
> > Let's postpone this discussion maybe until the 10th when Wayne is back
> > at it.
> >
> > On Sat, Jul 7, 2018, 10:33 PM Mark Roszko <mark.roszko@xxxxxxxxx
> > <mailto:mark.roszko@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
> >
> >    Hey guys,
> >
> >    So with 5.0 approaching theres something of an annoying problem on
> >    windows (that many are complaining about). The install location!
> >    Currently, even though you can install kicad into separate folders if
> >    you wanted to, kicad still tries to write to the same appdata folder!
> >
> >    Why would you want both the new and old? Because if you want to tweak
> >    a old design, you don't want to risk opening it in newer versions and
> >    having unforseen bugs. New designs sure, you really want to use the
> >    latest and greatest, but the old is a risk not worth taking,
> >    especially in the commercial field ;)
> >
> >    Also there is a settings conflicts between 4.0 and 5.0 sharing appdata.
> >
> >    I've seen some kicad forum "workarounds" where they use launcher
> >    scripts that set KICAD_CONFIG_HOME each time. While it works, its
> >    completely against the windows way :3
> >
> >
> >    What I propose, is we patch KiCad a little to:
> >
> >    1. Write to appdata in a versioned manner (just minor and maybe
> >    minor version)
> >    C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\kicad 4.0\
> >    C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\kicad 5.0\
> >    C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\kicad 6.0\
> >
> >    2. Potentially prompt the user on first-start to copy settings.
> >    (Maybe? Might be too much work for the final 5.0)
> >
> >    Then we patch the installer to follow the convention of:
> >    C:\Program Files\KiCad 4.0\
> >    C:\Program Files\KiCad 5.0\
> >    C:\Program Files\KiCad 6.0\
> >
> >    This would do what every other CAD and IDE does on Windows
> >    (versioned installs).
> >
> >    But what if people want to install in crazier ways ?!
> >    Well then that should beyond the scope of the "standard" installs and
> >    they are on their own. (Just like other tools)
> >
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> >
> >
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> >
>
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-- 
Mark

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