kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Dick Hollenbeck <dick@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 06/20/2012 05:01 AM, Lorenzo Marcantonio wrote:
> I've got these issues when routing a board. Let's say I'm doing
> a 0,2/0,2mm routing (i.e. 0,2mm of track separated by 0,2mm of
> clearance). Which is huge by today standard (in mil it's about an 8/8)
> but the numbers are easy :D Grid is set to 0,05 as for IPC
> recommendations (also it's a good general purpose grid).
>
> Now, the issue is that you *can't* put the tracks at exactly the
> specified distance (DRC during track drawing rejects it). In fact, the
> 'stick to wall' feature (no better name for it, when you 'push' the track
> against another one) gives the following results:
>
>
> Po 0 30.8 15.9 30.8 20.1 0.2 -1
> De 15 0 1 4FE19D7F 0
> Po 0 31.200002 16.05 31.200002 20.100002 0.2 -1
> De 15 0 2 4FE19DC4 0
>
> Yes, that's 2 nanometers away :D these 2 nm anyway break the 'grid
> beauty' and are unconvenient anyway (you can't route adjacent tracks
> without the stick to wall feature).
>
> What's the plan for this? I suppose I could set the clearance to, say,
> 0,199998... I mean, there should be a better solution, IMHO
>

I use freerouter to route ALL boards that I develop in Pcbnew.  For most boards, I use the
manual routing within freerouter, which provides push and shove routing.

You can also auto-route a single net at a time within freerouter.

Here are the most common conceptual mistakes folks have with routing in Pcbnew and
freerouting:


a) They assume that freerouter is only an auto-router.

b) They do not recognize that freerouter has a great push and shove manual routing capability.

c) They do not realize that auto-routing can be done on a subset of the board, and
manually on the balance.  That subset can be zero.

d) They assume that freerouter's capability can easily be duplicated, as if Alfon's 10
man-years of development on the thing is something you do, or ask for merely by posting an
email to a free project's mailing list.

e) That Pcbnew's routing capability is even one 1/10th as good as freerouting's is.


I for one, have NO plans to work on Pcbnew's routing capability without funding.  If
someone can duplicate what Alfons has done in less than 10 man years, for free, then they
are giving away valuable time for which some commercial software company would likely pay
a good salary to and for. 

Talent x time = $

Them's the facts.