kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Dick Hollenbeck <dick@...>]

Håvard Espeland wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 14, 2010 at 08:03:23PM +0100, jean-pierre.charras@... wrote:
>
> > Autorouters expect plated holes, and hobbyists are never happy with
> > auto routers.
> > Your problem exists also for students (I am a teacher at the
> > university).
> > Due to the process used, boards designed by my students cannot have
> > plated holes.
> > (Process to make plated holes is a *very* complex process).
> > On the other hand, these boards are elementary and do not require an
> > auto router.
> > But the advantage is they can have boards they have designed (with
> > Kicad of course) one hour (or less) after the design is finished.
> > May be do you consider routing "by hand".

Freerouter has a manual mode, and you can place the tracks on the layer 
you desire.

> For the last two years, I have been using kicad for all my boards, and I
> really like the program. Most of them are handrouted with occasional use
> of freerouter with manual fixups to move vias away from under components
> and only attach tracks to the opposite side of the component for modules
> where I can not solder on both sides. Autorouting is very adantageous
> when I have limited time (design and etching the same day), and
> espescially if I need to modify the circuit after routing.
>
> The lack of autorouting boards without through-plating has annoyed me
> since I started using kicad, and the patch I wrote significantly speeds
> up the design process when doing one-off prototype boards. Personally, it
> does not matter much if this feature is merged or not since I will just
> continue to patch it into kicad for my work, but I am quite confident
> that there are very many users out there that will benefit from this
> feature.

How many? How many is very many?

> Would it be an acceptable solution to add a new attribute to the
> components which indicate if the autorouter can attach tracks on any
> layer (as it is now and default), or only to pads which is on the
> opposite side of the component ? 


What Specctra DSN elements can be used to communicate this information 
to freerouter? Please reference something in the spec.


> This will not affect DRC or anything else since the pads will remain of
> type standard and the board will be as handrouted with knowledge of
> which pads will be connected on both sides, and which will not.