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Releases: notaroomba/kicad-collaborative

KiCad Collaborative 1.0.0

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@notaroomba notaroomba released this 30 Aug 14:05

KiCad Collaborative 1.0.0

Figma-style realtime collaboration for KiCad: live multi-user editing of boards and schematics, presence cursors and selections, viewport following, comment pins, version history with named checkpoints, share links, and a web-based online editor — all against the hosted collaboration server (https://kicad-collab-production.up.railway.app).

Based on KiCad 10.99 (upstream master).

Downloads

Platform File Notes
macOS (Apple Silicon) KiCad-Collaborative-1.0.0-macos.dmg Ad-hoc signed: first launch is right-click → Open
Windows x64 (portable) KiCad-Collaborative-1.0.0-windows-x64-portable.zip Unzip anywhere, run bin\kicad.exe
Windows x64 (installer) KiCad-Collaborative-1.0.0-windows-x64.exe NSIS installer
Linux x64 (Ubuntu 24.04+) KiCad-Collaborative-1.0.0-linux-x64.tar.gz Extract, run usr/bin/kicad-collaborative

Plays nice with stock KiCad

  • Installs under its own name — no file associations taken, no shared settings clobbered.
  • Never creates or modifies .lck lock files; existing locks from a stock KiCad are honored read-only.
  • Saves keep the file format version the file was opened with, so a KiCad 9 project stays a KiCad 9 project to everyone else.
  • No collaboration data is written into project files (session metadata lives in a .collab/ directory).
  • Your stock KiCad's symbol/footprint libraries are found automatically on first run.

Collaboration highlights

  • Start or join sessions from the File menu in the board or schematic editor; share links copy to the clipboard.
  • Live peer cursors, selections, and drag ghosts with ratsnest; click a peer to follow their viewport.
  • Comment pins on the canvas with threads, replies and resolve.
  • History panel (docked under Properties) with named checkpoints and restore.
  • Web editor: open any project's Live page in a browser to pan, select, move, rotate and comment without installing anything.

Linux note: a WebSocket-capable libcurl is bundled (usr/lib/kicad-collab/); the kicad-collaborative launcher prefers it automatically.