@ubruhin
August 21, 2023
I’m very excited to announce that LibrePCB 1.0 is feature-complete and that a first release candidate is available for download!
About This Release Candidate
LibrePCB 1.0 contains a huge amount of changes compared to the previous release. Even though we give our best to keep the quality high and do lots of testing, such large changes always come with the risk of bugs. Thus, we first provide a release candidate prior to the official stable release.
Note that while we do not expect that any serious problems occur with your projects when using this release candidate, it’s still a good idea to create a backup first (e.g. by using a version control system).
If you experience any issues with this release candidate, please let us know so we can fix them in the final release!
Major Changes
A full changelog and some impressions will be provided in the final release announcement. But here’s a list of the most interesting new features (check out the links to the pull requests for more details):
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Implement 3D viewer & STEP export (#1156)
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Implement unified production data files generator (#1194)
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Support thermal relief pads in planes (#1160)
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Support blind & buried vias (#1163)
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Support keepout zones (#1167)
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Support rounded and custom footprint pad shapes (#1102, #1103)
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Support configurable stop mask and solder paste on pads (#1137)
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And many more!
Next Steps
We expect the final release to be available soon, probably around the beginning of September. Meanwhile, we will work on migrating our official libraries to the new file format, extending our fabrication service to support LibrePCB 1.x projects, and updating the documentation accordingly.
Credits
This release was part of the NGI0 Entrust grant we receive from NLnet, which was a huge help for us to get this work done. We are very thankful for their support.
Also a big thank you to the community helping us with translations, pull requests, donations and other contributions!