If you want to see a crazy autorouter, check out TopR. I will be using for aesthetics alone (PS: I hate autorouters as a general rule).

 

If you want to see a crazy autorouter, check out TopR. I will be using for aesthetics alone (PS: I hate autorouters as a general rule).

It looks neat - I've seen it before. Interestingly gEDA PCB has one in the latest SVN, but like most autorouters it still has problems, and doesn't meet the performance of human routing.

 

What software do you use to do this?

I use Eagle, the free version is limited by the board size.

 

TopR is cute. How much?

I use Eagle too. Anybody know how to get tear-drop shaped pads?

John

 

TopR is cute. How much?

I use Eagle too. Anybody know how to get tear-drop shaped pads?

John

Last time I checked a few months ago is was $500 US or so for the basic version.

 

If I had that type of money for cute, I would date Ziva David (http://www.fanpop.com/spots/ziva-david/images).

John

 

If I had that type of money for cute, I would date Ziva David (http://www.fanpop.com/spots/ziva-david/images).

John

I wouldn't buy it anyway, seeing the results don't really seem to be that good. Especially on a complex layout with the BGAs. I don't deal with high speed logic or BGAs (thankfully), so I don't know enough to make a judgement, but the traces were all over the place.

 

If I had that type of money for cute, I would date Ziva David (http://www.fanpop.com/spots/ziva-david/images).

John

She never really turned me on. Plus I do not want my ass kicked by a woman.


I watching the show right now on Tivo.

 

I wouldn't buy it anyway, seeing the results don't really seem to be that good. Especially on a complex layout with the BGAs. I don't deal with high speed logic or BGAs (thankfully), so I don't know enough to make a judgement, but the traces were all over the place.

Take a look at the signal integrity data, they give. Looks pretty good.

 

As a total novice to DipTrace and while laying out a relatively simple board, I found that the first step that worked best for me was to manually route crucial traces. I then allowed DipTrace to route nets one at a time while constraining the routing to one layer of the PCB. During this process, I made some manual corrections to some of the nets as they were auto-routed (such as rotating components.) Then, as a last step, I looked for (and found) several opportunities to reduce overall trace length by moving selected trace segments to the opposite board layer. As a result, I avoided vias since all the layer changes took place at component through holes.

Place components, connect the pins then just let it route double sided which I believe it defaults to. After it's done you can move traces around as you like but it's normally a good output. I just tighten up the specs on the checking part until I get a ton of errors, back it off until I only have a few then tweak those. After that I export everything as a .zip file and send it to http://www.freedfm.com for a second opinion.

If dealing with RF or very high speed logic tweak carefully, last RF board I did I manually routed because it needed to be one sided.

 

If I had that type of money for cute, I would date Ziva David (http://www.fanpop.com/spots/ziva-david/images).

John

Big NCIS - fan there, John?

My daughter wants to be like Abby-style. I say of course, but first comes the school/universities, then I will buy the clothes...