kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 9/18/2014 12:04 PM, Tomasz Wlostowski wrote:
> Dear all,
> 
> We are planning to introduce some improvements to the P&S router before
> the first lightweight stable release of Kicad comes out. Here's are the
> things we'd like to get done by the end of November:
> 
> 1) Length tuning tool
> 
> An automatic tool generating "accordions"/"meanders" on a chosen trace
> to match the given length. The first version of the tool will simply let
> you choose the pads and the required electrical distance between them.
> We may do the same for diff pairs if time permits.
> 
> 2) Diff pair router
> 
> An extension to the P&S allowing to route both traces of a pair with a
> constrained gap between and adding vias at appropriate spacing. For the
> first version we aim to input the gaps/spacings by hand, later on we
> will probably add such the possibility of adding such constraints on the
> schematic, but this depends on the eeschema schedule.
> 
> 3) On-line length measurement - display a fly-over window with the
> length/skew of the currently routed trace/diff pair.
> 
> 4) Some optimizations/improvements/bugfixes
> - springback on via dragging
> - optimizer improvements (better acute/right angle removal, tighter
> routing)
> - improved layer switching
> - optimizations to the P&S storage model
> - support for non-orthogonal pads
> 
> If there's any particular stuff you'd like to ask for or discuss, don't
> hesitate to tell us!
> 
> Most of these changes are internal to the P&S code only and don't affect
> other Kicad components.
> 
> I'd also like to add support for arcs on copper layers (for efficient
> representation of miters/meanders). Contrary to the current graphical
> arc object, I'd propose to approximate them using line segments (and
> store as such approximations) so that there's no need to add full arc
> support (for plotter/DRC/etc). What do you think?
> 
> Cheers,
> Tom
> 

I assuming you are going to include the documentation for the new P&S
router features as well since it is (or at least should be ) a
requirement for a stable release.  Looks like interesting times ahead
for KiCad.

Regards,

Wayne