kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Robbert Lagerweij <rlagerweij@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Op 5-3-2018 om 18:49 schreef Wayne Stambaugh:
> 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 guess this begs the question, who is kicad targeting? Are we trying to 
serve the professionals or also be a tool for the less skilled 
(comparative) masses.

> 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.
I absolutely agree, but after reading this article 
https://wp.josh.com/2017/10/23/adventures-in-autorouting/, I did find 
myself wondering what a Google Summer of Code Student (with some 
opencl/machine learning/other buzzword skills) might be able to do with 
the auto-router.

Robbert