kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Jon Evans <jon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yes, I have also heard that from my hard-core board design colleagues.  No
one uses auto-routers anymore, they instead use interactive routers that
have gotten very good lately.

We should continue to push the KiCad interactive (PNS) router to add
capabilities (multi-net routing, via array styles, automatic fan-out,
automatic clean-up, automatic completion, etc).
Then, a feature such as "auto-route the last bit of this track because the
user nudged the component over slightly or rotated it 90 degrees" sort of
come for free.

-Jon

On Mon, Mar 5, 2018 at 12:49 PM, Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

> I was thinking one level of abstraction higher where I just input my
> design requirements and it spits out a schematic, full simulation to
> match the design requirements, and a completed board layout.  That would
> make my job a *lot* easier. ;)
>
> All kidding aside, I was told by a very highly skilled board designer
> not to waste our time with auto-routers because no one actually uses
> them except for the simplest designs with lots of free board space and
> few or no routing restrictions.  This is someone who uses Altium in his
> day job and has laid out far more boards than I have.  I'm guessing
> auto-routers appeal to hobbyists rather than professionals.  I've never
> seen an auto-router come any where close to how I would route a board so
> I never use them.  There are far more useful features to add to KiCad
> than auto-routing.  If we ever get to the point we are sitting around
> twiddling our thumbs, then we should work on an auto-router.
>
> On 3/5/2018 12:16 PM, Jon Evans wrote:
> > Actually the second point in that post is a gem (rerouting of tracks
> > when you move a component)  It is a feature of some super-high end
> > packages (Xpedition, Allegro I think) but missing from lots of paid
> > tools (Altium, Zuken, etc).
> >
> > It's on my list of things I want to add to KiCad at some point (if
> > someone else doesn't get to it first), but it's also one of the most
> > complex problems to solve on that list...
> >
> > -Jon
> >
> > On Mon, Mar 5, 2018 at 12:09 PM, Tomasz Wlostowski
> > <tomasz.wlostowski@xxxxxxx <mailto:tomasz.wlostowski@xxxxxxx>> wrote:
> >
> >     Ladies and gentlemen, there's a lot of work for us ahead!
> >
> >     https://www.reddit.com/r/AskElectronics/comments/
> 815fz2/what_eda_is_really_the_best_out_there_for_macos/
> >     <https://www.reddit.com/r/AskElectronics/comments/
> 815fz2/what_eda_is_really_the_best_out_there_for_macos/>
> >
> >     Cheers,
> >     Tom
> >
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