Post by thread:[OT]PCB AutoRouting (is it smart way ? / really Du

I have to disagree. I use an autorouter on every board I layout. Perhaps you are all using bad autorouters or don't know how to set them up to do what you need them to do. Max/min/pref trace widths, the length and path, the priority of nets, all those and lots more are settable. Also, unless you pack components with zero clearance, there's no reason why the autorouter will not get 100% completion on a double-sided board. "Routing strategy" files are something of a pain, but the default ones are quite good. The autorouters I use are "PADs Advanced Autorouter" and "SPECCTRA". Neither of them are inexpensive. Cheers, Bob

>I have to disagree. I use an autorouter on every board I layout. Perhaps >you are all using bad autorouters or don't know how to set them up to do >what you need them to do. > >Max/min/pref trace widths, the length and path, the priority of nets, all >those and lots more are settable. Also, unless you pack components with >zero clearance, there's no reason why the autorouter will not get 100% >completion on a double-sided board. "Routing strategy" files are something >of a pain, but the default ones are quite good. Been there, done that, the router might complete, but the frankenstein's child it creates would only pass emissions testing in Tesla's lab. So how do I tell it that component X is going to dump 19A into "ground", and still have component X located on the opposite end of the board from the power supply, and not have "ground" with 19A on it passing through my logic section? How do I tell it that two caps that connect to "ground" must have a separate track back to the uP ground and nowhere else, with nothing else on that track (but it is still "Ground") How do I tell it that I want a +32V routed co-planar over a -32V return? How do I tell it to minimize the ground impedance between a pair of chips that are passing high speed signals, at the expense of routng length in other signals.