v0.7.2

0.7.2

Added

• PI Models in the 3D view (#84): in DC mode, a new PI Models checkbox under
  Display marks the setup's VRMs (green), loads (cyan), series links (magenta) and
  capacitors with a model (white) on the copper, with a dot on each of their pads on the
  nets shown (smaller on ground) and the part's name. It starts unticked; the marks follow
  setup edits and are hidden over results. The Models checkbox is now 3D Models.
• Solver accuracy tests (#70): eight validation boards in examples/validation
  (thin and arc tracks, right-angle routes, a layer change through vias, planes, a power
  chain with a series link, and AC plane, decoupling-capacitor and ferrite boards), each
  solved and compared with hand calculations. They run in tests/accuracy, as a separate
  final CI job on pull requests into main, and open in KiPI like any snapshot.
• Click-to-sort tables everywhere (#85): the capacitor parts table, a probe's custom
  target points and a load's pin groups sort by a clicked column header, as do every table
  in the DC and AC HTML reports. Values with SI prefixes sort by value (100 nF before
  10 µF, 4u7 as 4.7 µ), references sort naturally (C9 before C10), ticked parts can be
  sorted first, and blanks go last. A table keeps its order when ticking a part refills it.
• Footprints in the capacitor parts table (#64): each capacitor's footprint shows in
  its own column (the library in its tooltip) and the filter matches it. Tick same
  footprint and Tick same value + footprint join Tick same value, so e.g. the
  0402 and 0603 100 nF parts can get their own models. Snapshots now keep each
  footprint's library name; boards saved earlier show it once read again from KiCad.
• Power tree toolbar button: a block diagram of the VRMs (each type in its own colour and
  tag), rails, series links, loads and capacitors, laid out in the direction power flows,
  saveable as a PNG. Rails with many loads or capacitor groups pack them into grids shaped
  so the whole tree fits the window (#58).
• Thermal settings: Include load power dissipation (off by default) heats the board
  with each load's power, the sum over its supply and ground pins of pin current × pin
  voltage, spread over those pins. The DC report lists each load's and DC connection's
  heat in a new Component power dissipation table (#62).
• SI prefixes in value fields (#60). A value can be typed with a prefix and unit, which
  is converted to the field's unit. For example, 10n or 10 nF in a µF field, 2 mOhm
  or 4k7 for a resistance, 1.2 MHz in a kHz field, or 3.3 V in a mV field. This
  works in every field whose unit is an SI unit (Ω, F, H, Hz, A, V, W, m). A field keeps
  its usual decimals but shows more when a small typed value needs them, so 10 pF in a µF
  field reads 0.00001 µF instead of rounding to zero. See Typing values in the help.
• Stackup window (#61). The new Stackup toolbar button opens a window listing
  every copper and dielectric layer with its thickness, each dielectric's material, εr and
  in-plane thermal conductivity, and each copper layer's resistivity. Thicknesses show in
  µm, mm, mil or oz. The stackup is locked to KiCad's values by default. Untick Lock to
  imported values to try other thicknesses, materials and εr. Each dielectric's material
  is a drop-down of the materials KiPI knows; choosing one sets its typical εr and thermal
  conductivity. Each copper layer has a conductor drop-down too (annealed, electrodeposited
  or rolled-annealed copper, silver, gold, aluminum, nickel or tin), which sets that
  layer's resistivity, TCR and thermal conductivity; the DC solve and the electro-thermal
  model use a TCR and a thermal conductivity per layer. The layers restack, and every DC and AC analysis, the 3D view and the reports use the
  edited stackup. The PI setup keeps it. KiCad's API cannot change a board's stackup yet, so
  edits stay in KiPI.
• AC Board map tab (#67). In AC mode a Board map tab beside Impedance shows the
  report's board map in the GUI: the solver's mesh of the rail and its ground (all layers,
  or one layer at a time, with or without the triangle edges), the board outline, the
  probes, and the capacitors in the model coloured by model, with those left out for want
  of a model crossed. It fills in while the rail solves, the parts first and then the mesh,
  and the Impedance tab comes to the front when the results arrive. Hover a part for its
  model. The view is fixed, fitted to the board. Saved AC results keep the map.
• Every pin's voltage and current in the DC reports (#71). The CSV export adds
  <stem>_pins.csv, and the HTML report adds a Pins section with a collapsible
  table per net group. Both list every pin each group was solved with: VRM output, phase,
  input and sense pins, load supply and ground pins, and DC connection pins. Each row has
  the pin's position, voltage, drop or boost from the set point, and current. VRM output
  pin currents are solved, so they show how the current shares between a VRM's pins. A
  load's current is split equally across its pins, which is how the solver applies it.
  Results saved before 0.7.2 have no pin list.

Changed

• HTML report file names carry the date and time of the solve
  (<board>_kipi_report_<date>_<time>.html,
  <board>_<rail>_ac_report_<date>_<time>.html), so a new solve no longer overwrites the
  last report, and Save results… suggests a time-stamped .kipi-results /
  .kipi-ac-results name (#66).
• The DC setup's Copper tab is gone. Its resistivity, TCR and per-layer resistivity
  moved to the Stackup window, since the AC solve uses them too.
• The Cut plane (axis, slider and Flip) is gone from the Display options.
• The multiphase buck example has a 10 µF input capacitor (C20-C23) on VIN beside each
  power stage, with a 10u model in its setup, so an AC solve of VIN shows decoupling.
  Its setup probes VIN at all four power stages (Q1-Q4).
• HTML reports open in the default web browser as soon as a DC or AC solve writes them
  (Python's webbrowser is the fallback where the desktop cannot open the file). Report
  still reopens them later.
• The AC HTML report's impedance plot shows |Z| only; the phase plot under it is gone.
  Hovering a curve still gives R and X.
• Flat current arrows (#63). The current-density view's arrows are flat 2D arrows
  drawn on each copper layer instead of 3D cone-and-cylinder models. They lie on the
  copper's top face and are repeated on its bottom face, so they show from above and
  below, and they are unlit, so they stay plain white at any viewing angle.
• Dielectric constant from the KiCad stackup in AC mode (#65). A dielectric made of
  several sublayers (for example, two prepreg sheets) now gets all of their εr, combined
  in series. Before, the first sublayer's εr was used for the whole thickness. The AC
  solve's log and the HTML report list the εr used for each dielectric and mark where
  Default εr stood in.
• The version number is 0.7.2. The 0.7.1 release still reported itself as 0.7.0.
• Tests are grouped into tests/core, tests/dc, tests/ac, tests/gui and
  tests/scripts, with shared test boards in tests/helpers instead of being imported from
  other test files. CI shows each folder's results in its own log group.

Fixed

• Online user guide link: when the local guide is missing, KiPI now points to the
  guide on GitHub Pages (https://drewsum.github.io/KiPI/help.html) rather than to the
  file's HTML source on GitHub.
• Clicking a results table's column header a second time now reverses the sort; it used
  to sort ascending every time, because Qt flips its own sort indicator before the click
  reaches KiPI (#85).
• The AC HTML report no longer leaves a large blank space between the board map and the
  capacitor models. The map's plot shared its id with the section heading, so Plotly drew
  the map inside the heading and left the map's own space empty. The map's height now also
  follows the page width, so a narrow window doesn't leave blank bands above and below the
  board.
• When KiPI cannot read the board's stackup, its default stackup no longer fixes εr at 4.5.
  The AC Default εr setting now applies there, as it does for any dielectric the stackup
  gives no value for.