Recently, I started using KiCad to play around and start learning. But then, when I really started using KiCad to collaborate on others on GitHub, I had to update to the latest version, version 5. I actually ended up starting to learn on version 4, and boy that was a mess in usability. Version 5 came with some significant usability improvements… except for perhaps one. Where is the built-in autorouter in KiCad version 5? I see it in the documentation, but I don’t see it in the user interface.
So, on I must go to searching the Internet and digging up community discussion to answer this. Unfortunately, as news has it, it was removed. If you want autorouting when using version 5, you have to export and import to the external Freerouter autorouter. Yeah, now that’s a nuisance and inconvenience for novices just getting started. You have to draw all the traces yourself? What a bunch of extra unnecessary effort when you are just getting started and not to a full final design yet!
Yeah, but that’s the way it has to be. On the flip side, you get much better features overall in version 5. Unlike in Blender, though, this all comes at the expense of file format incompatibility with version
- I mean, you can still partially read version 5 data in version 4, but some things will get broken that you’d think shouldn’t have to get broken.
In any case, if by accident I discovered this, it’s a good idea to have both version 4 and version 5 of KiCad around on hand for immediate use.
20200312/DuckDuckGo kicad 5 autorouter
20200312/https://forum.kicad.info/t/how-to-use-built-in-autorouter-in-version-5/12847/5