Tim Fifield wrote: > > Just curious... Does anybody use the 99SE autorouter for large PCB designs? > Do the majority of board designers do everything manually? I don't even > bother with the autorouter anymore, it's to messy. Perhaps I'm not setting > it up properly. What do you people do?
I have used it for medium designs (3 560-pin BGAs, 4 100/144-pin QFPs, 30 or so smaller SM ICs and several hundred discrete R, C, L and XTAL, plus connectors, test points, etc.) I hand routed the speed critical and analog sections, set up many design rules (layers, clearances per IC, per via, etc.) and then turned the AR loose. Spent about 2 hours cleanup, but I feel like I had good results and it did the job MUCH faster than I could have done by hand. For large designs, I typically use Specctra. For small designs, I may hand route or throw the AR into it just to see how it does. Often I am surprised by how well it performs! Sometimes, I setup keepout lines (constraining the traces within specific regions) and turn the AR loose doing analog and speed critical signals as well as the rest of the board. I usually have a good bit to clean up (setting length, max parallel and length rules on signals and verifying they are within tolerance), but even then I find the AR did as well as or better than some layout shops had done on designs which were similar but using other tools. My advice is set up every rule you can find (even if the AR does not obey them) and then DRC/tweek until YOU are satisfied. If you think the cleanup will take too long either add some constraints (new rules or keepout guides), or do it by hand. Don't get me wrong, I complain about the AR because there are a LOT of quirks which I think Altium (nee Protel) should put serious effort into correcting; but for the price, it does a reasonable job. David W. Gulley Destiny Designs * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * To post a message: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * To leave this list visit: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/leave.html * * Contact the list manager: * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Forum Guidelines Rules: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/forumrules.html * * Browse or Search previous postings: * http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
