Release candidate 1 of the latest KiCad version was released today. The amount and quality of new features is great(it now has a selection filter 
).
I’ve been using the nightly builds for the past week or so; I’ve had no data corruption issues and it’s all been just as stable as v5.1.x.
Source:
https://www.mail-archive.com/kicad-developers@lists.launchpad.net/msg39818.html
Via(that thread has a summary of most new features):
I’ve had the nightly on my computer since early in the year, though I haven’t used it much. Since I want to share my KiCad files on GitHub, I don’t want to use a version that’s ahead of the production version and generates non backward compatible files. I’ll probably switch right over when 6.0 becomes the stable release.
I only properly started using the nightlies to create a board last week, when I knew this semi-stable release was coming. Most if not all of my (public)GitHub designs are made with the stable release as you say, so there aren’t any problems opening them.
(though for that matter there’s been no end of posts from confused users on the KiCad forums about a popular single board computer manufacturer sharing a template PCB made with the nightlies… )
Oh hey, I just started up kicad-nightly and it said “Welcome to KiCad 6.0!”
I’ve found eeschema’s revamped copy/cut/paste system includes this “Paste Special…” dialog
which not only allows you to cut something from one page and stick it in another without losing the annotations, but (and I think this was not the case earlier in 5.99, at least not at one point, I think) it also keep track of their internal identifiers so when you update the PCB, it doesn’t delete all the pasted components and re-add them, forcing you to place them all again.
Man. Had I known that yesterday I would’ve used the nightly to reorganize pages in my project — I doubt I’ll be wanting to share it before KiCad 6 stable is released anyway!
Tip: on ancient CPUs, don’t use the curved tracks feature. It makes routing abhorrently slow.
I’m struggling to get used to the new copy/paste paradigm eeschema though - the old one is so much quicker.
Can you get setting the grid origin to work? From KiCad 6 is coming! A comprehensive review - Tech Explorations it looks like the second from bottom icon is (along with others) a “multi tool” that lets you choose from different functions:
But I can’t get that behavior. I can only get it to place the drill file origin.
I tried hovering over the icon, right clicking, and clicking on the triangle. Nothing.
Hold down your mouse cursor on the icon? That’s what worked when I needed to use the differential pair routing function, so I presume it’s the same for the origin icon.
That does it! Thanks. Not very intuitive.
Hey, any tips on how I install this version in addition to the 5 version that I have now (On Ubuntu 21.10)? Is it just adding the repo and then it can be installed side by side?
I just saw the deprecation note on the ao symbol library from @analogoutput and thought, I might just check out kicad6 
On Windows they can be installed side by side without interference.
My Ubuntu box is broken at the moment so I can’t check.
Yeah, I have the 6.0 nightly and 5.x installed in Linux Mint. By default projects created in 6.0 want to open in 5.x, which doesn’t work, so I have to use “Open with…” but that’s the only real gotcha.
Oh, I just tested and on my ubuntu kicad5.x was entirely replaced by 6… let’s hope this goes well xD
Huh. Weird. The file formats are not backward compatible, so if you want to share with others still using 5.x you’ll need 5.x. Which presumably you could re-install (possibly nuking 6.0 though).
What I love most about the new version so far is the placement of multi-part symbols, like TL074! Just start with part A and place it and it automatically switches to B for you to place etc.!!
We’re getting closer to release:
I somehow lost all the components in the library of my rc1 install… not a huge problem atm, because I use the local ones by @analogoutput but still a bit worrying…
What, the entire standard KiCad library (symbols? footprints?) disappeared? That’s pretty serious.
For anyone who didn’t click through on the link:
If no critical/high priority bugs are open on Monday morning (20-Dec),
6.0.0will be tagged then and the packaging process can begin.
Merry Christmas and a … non buggy new year? I hope? I’ve seen some apparent funniness with zones but nothing I can reproduce.
I’ve been using rc1 for new stuff (and rc2 for a couple days now, I guess, it updated and I didn’t notice) and I expect anything I publish starting tomorrow will be version 6 format. Apologies to anyone reluctant to be an early adopter but the improvements are something I want to use right now.
Most likely they’re not lost, but the KiCad environment variables don’t point to the location of the libraries.
From the project manager window click preferences → paths where you can see any undefined or incorrect variables.
I need to check, but I think the (Ubuntu) packages for the libs are separate from the kicad core and I might only have added the repository for the core… but maybe not, I need to check again!
