Dear Matt, Normally I only route the boards by hand (4 & 6 layers) , my expierence with autorouting utillities (not only Protel) is that you still want to change tracks which you don't like so you will wind up re routing the whole board :)
The only thing i sometimes use the autorouter for is routing the databus on the pcb, only if there aren't any other tracks routed or else you get your swiss cheese... Remco van den Heuvel. Hardware Engineer. Please feel welcome to visit our website at: http://www.fusionelectronics.org ------------------------------------------------------------------- Willem Alexanderweg 87, NL-3945 CH Cothen email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] tel: (+31)343590600 fax (+31)343578599 ------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- Original Message ----- From: Matt Polak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Protel EDA Forum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, January 21, 2002 4:51 PM Subject: [PEDA] Autorouting or manual routing, or both? > > Hey folks, > > It seems that a majority of you are doing some very dense, high-speed > layouts with 4-6 layers being quite a common occurrence. I'm just wondering > how much you typically route by hand, and how much you let the auto-router > whack away at. > > Being primarily self-taught in the ways of Protel, and with the help of a > few 'older school' engineer friends here and there, I've done a number of > successful design layouts thus far, but these have been relatively simple 2 > and 4 layer designs without many small-pitch/high pin-count devices. I'm > moving more towards laying out more high-speed designs in the near future > where a lot of stuff needs to be fit into a small place, and all connect > together without traces and vias meandering all over. > > When I look at sample six layer boards (such as the 5407 EVM reference > design Motorola has released) the bussing and interconnects are extremely > elegant and efficient in appearance. For fun, I unrouted the 5407 board and > then let the autorouter chew on it. It immediately made 'via swiss-cheese' > out of the board and created little more than a large mess. I'm GUESSING > quite a bit of these sort of designs are laid out by hand, or at least > pre-routed to give the auto-router a sense of direction? > > Can anyone offer some basic pointers to getting started into planning and > laying out PCBs for multi-layer, high-speed designs such as these? I have > no idea where one would really even start with something like this. It > seems most of the important knowledge gets passed directly from engineer to > engineer; there are certainly no university classes (that I know of, > anyway) that teach you how to lay out a dense, 6 layer board. :/ I > appreciate the patience and wisdom of those who remember once being where I > am now, who are willing to take the time to pass some of the tips and > tricks down the engineering family tree. > > Thanks again for any pointers anyone can provide (either through the list, > or privately.) > > Best regards, > -- Matt > > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 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/proteledaforum@techservinc.com * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
