In terms of automatically arranging components a force directed graph algorithm may work quite nicely, especially if the algorithm is seeded with the layout of components on the schematic.
A simplistic version would be to just arrange components on board sheet as to their position on the schematic sheets. On Tue, 6 Mar 2018 05:07 Andy Peters, <de...@latke.net> wrote: > > > > On Mar 5, 2018, at 10:49 AM, Wayne Stambaugh <stambau...@gmail.com> > 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. ;) > > Maybe it can do my FPGA design for me, and also write firmware for the ARM > processor too! Why am I doing all of this hard work when I could be > drinking coffee and reading the New York Times? > > > 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. > > At the previous day job, we did VME and CompactPCI single-board computers, > and the layout people took advantage of full-up Specctra autorouting. The > designs had a lot of wide parallel buses and suchlike which could be > autorouted, but there was still plenty of stuff on those boards which > needed to be routed manually. And setting up constraints for the autorouter > was still a couple of days work. > > At the current job everything is smaller. Each product has multiple boards > that need to connect correctly. Boards are mixed signal, they have power > supply parts, there are connectors that poke through the enclosure, etc etc > etc and suffice it to say we never autoroute. Assisted routing, like the > Kicad push-and-shove, and Altium’s “bus routing” (a feature I’d like to see > in Kicad, for sure!) goes a long way. > > > > I'm guessing auto-routers appeal to hobbyists rather than professionals. > > How many questions on forums do you see from hobbyists asking about how to > autoroute, or wondering if the results from the autorouter are good? > > -a > _______________________________________________ > Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > Post to : kicad-developers@lists.launchpad.net > Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp >
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