KiCad

What's new in this version:

By the Numbers:
Source repository contributions:
- KiCad 10 was built with changes and additions from hundreds of developers, translators, library contributors, and documentation submitters. There were 7,609 unique commits made that changed code and translations, a notable increase from Version 9. Our annual development cycle continues to provide regular major releases for our user base and attract new contributors and sponsors.

Improvements to the official KiCad libraries:
- There have been significant developments with the official KiCad libraries since KiCad 9 was released - early on in the V9 cycle we switched the default 3D model format to STEP, and starting with KiCad version 10 we are shipping STEP files only - this dramatically reduces the install size of the 3D models and gives better geometric accuracy and fewer differences between visualization and exports. We have added new user contributions amounting to 952 new symbols, 1216 new footprints, and 386 new 3D models to the libraries. 5 new library team members joined us in 2025, helping with both tooling and reviews of user contributions. After extensive tooling rework, the vast majority of footprints in the library are now generated - over 78% of all footprints now get generated from data rather than being manually drawn. We now also have several integrated generators that produce both 3D model data and footprints from the same data definitions. Our median merge request processing time dropped from 3 days to 18 hours, despite receiving more merge requests than ever before (2105 new merge requests in 2025, compared to 2010 in 2024).

General Improvements:
- Dark mode for Windows: thanks to a collaboration between KiCad core developers and the wxWidgets team, KiCad now supports dark mode on Windows, and will automatically follow the system choice of dark or light mode for the user interface.

Windows dark mode:
- Customizable toolbars: Ian McInerney added the ability to customize toolbars in the KiCad editor windows, allowing users to rearrange the user interface to better suit their workflow.
- Undo/redo support in dialogs: Seth Hillbrand added the ability to undo changes made within dialog boxes before they are closed, making it more convenient to experiment with settings.
- Lasso selection: Andrzej Wolski added the ability to select objects using a "lasso" or freeform mode rather than the rectangular selection box. This is supported in both the PCB and schematic editors.
- New importers: KiCad 10 can now import designs from Allegro, PADS, and gEDA / Lepton PCB. For more details about the importer’s capabilities and limitations, please check out the blog post from earlier this year.

Schematic Editing:
- Variants: Wayne Stambaugh and Seth Hillbrand added support for design variants: a way to track different versions of a single project that share a schematic but have property changes (for example, a different bill of materials).
- Hop-over display: Jean-Pierre Charras added anothr long-requested feature: the ability to show wire crossings that aren’t connected as "hop-over" arcs rather than straight lines.
- Hopovers
- Speaking of schematic display, Seth Hillbrand added live junction updates when dragging items in the schematic editor, and a warning when dragging some wires will cause them to short-circuit with others, so you can see a preview of how connectivity will change.
- Jumper support: Jon Evans added the ability to define jumpers, or sets of symbol pins and footprint pads that should be considered internally connected. Jumpers will always have the same net and will not show a ratsnest line in the PCB editor, making them useful for representing parts that have off-board electrical connections.

Jumpers:
- Grouping support: Mike Williams brought the grouping feature from the PCB to the schematic editor for version 10, allowing easier manipulation of complex schematics.
- Pin table CSV support: John Beard added support for exporting to and importing from CSV files to the Symbol Editor Pin Table, giving more options for creating and editing complex parts.
- Other new features include local power symbols, drag and drop image support, support for multiple alternate symbol body styles, and improvements to the simulator plotting tools.

PCB Design:
- Time-domain tuning: James Jackson did a complete overhaul of KiCad’s track tuning system, including upgrades to the algorithms to make things more consistent between the router and DRC, support for defining time-domain constraints instead of just length constraints, and support for Tuning Profiles, which let users define per-layer routing parameters for signals.

Delay tuning:
- PCB Design Blocks: Mike Williams continued his efforts from KiCad 9 and extended the Design Blocks feature to the PCB editor. Users can now create and manage libraries of board layouts, and both schematic and PCB design blocks got some nifty new features.
- John Beard added support for inner-layer objects in footprints, meaning that now users can add graphical shapes, keepouts, and more on inner layers rather than being limited to the front or back layers as in previous versions of KiCad.
- Pin and gate swap: Mike Williams implemented an unconstrained pin/pad and gate/unit swap feature, supporting forward and back annotation of changes between the schematic and PCB. Future versions of KiCad may bring a constrained swap system (one in which users define rules for which swaps are permitted in specific scenarios).
- Graphical DRC Rule editor: Seth Hillbrand and Damjan Prerad built a new rule editor dialog that enables users to create custom design rules in a graphical workflow. Rules created with the editor are fully compatible with the existing Custom Rules language, allowing users to start with graphical definitions and grow into more advanced rules as they get more familiar with the system.

Design rule editor:
- In addition to the above, many other features were added such as support for barcodes, hatched fills in graphic shapes, precise point editing for polygons, suggested fix actions for DRC errors, 3D PDF export, native rounded rectangles, and much more!