One important point I haven't seen here is that manual routing is a skill that is worth learning, because even the best auto-routers will invariably leave you with one track to route manually, and when you come to do that one track you'll realise why it couldn't be done and just how difficult a problem it is to solve. I learnt that skill at a time when a £1000 pound computer offered 16k of RAM and had at best blocky graphics with a resolution of something like 80x50. How? I used squared paper, a pencil, and a decent rubber. I've been using those skills for the last thirty years, but using better tools with each passing year. Kicad will teach your son those skills without the pain of resorting to the one tool I used rather a lot but didn't mention, namely the waste paper basket, but it costs less than a pad of squared paper.
Regards, Robert. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.503 / Virus Database: 269.15.31/1129 - Release Date: 11/13/2007 21:22
