kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>]

One thing that may be of more interest to board designers is an
automatic footprint placement algorithm that minimizes the number of air
wire crossings.  Not so much to place the footprints but to orient them.
 A few years ago someone proposed using a chemical reaction stability
algorithm where the number of air wire crossings were used to determine
the heat between neighboring footprints.  There was even an open source
library that was generic enough to use for our purposes.  I'm not sure
if this message is on the launchpad mailing list or if this went back to
the sourceforge mailing list.

On 3/5/2018 12:56 PM, Jon Evans wrote:
> 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
> <mailto: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>
>     <mailto: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/>
>     >     <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
>     >
>     >     _______________________________________________
>     >     Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
>     <https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers>
>     >     <https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
>     <https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers>>
>     >     Post to     : kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>     <mailto:kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>     >     <mailto:kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>     <mailto:kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
>     >     Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
>     <https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers>
>     >     <https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
>     <https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers>>
>     >     More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>     <https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp>
>     >     <https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>     <https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp>>
>     >
>     >
>     >
>     >
>     > _______________________________________________
>     > Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
>     <https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers>
>     > Post to     : kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>     <mailto:kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>     > Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
>     <https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers>
>     > More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>     <https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp>
>     >
> 
>     _______________________________________________
>     Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
>     <https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers>
>     Post to     : kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>     <mailto:kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>     Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
>     <https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers>
>     More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>     <https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp>
> 
>