Hi Guys It was extra work, but I exported my PCB file as PADS ASCII (Not Protel ASCII, this didn't fix the problem), then imported it back in. I received a message that 4 entities could not be converted. This must have REALLY worked, because the autorouter has run fine since then.
Thanks, guys, for all the assistance and advice you guys gave me, or I would not be looking at the routed board right now! John -----Original Message----- From: Ian Wilson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2002 3:03 PM To: Protel EDA Forum Subject: Re: [PEDA] Autorouter Stability Problems On 10:13 AM 19/01/2002 -0800, Brian Sherer said: >1) Protel doesn't flag buffer overruns at all, in any server. It can occur >when >for instance >multiple Polygon Pours are used instead of Split Planes on a multilayer >design. >It seems >that Polygons are handled as a multiplicity of primitives, while Split Planes >are handled as >single entities. Database size seems to grow exponentially if Polygon Pours >are >used. >In a "failure to initialize" or crash situation, this is often related to item >2. Brian, Can you explain more about this please? I have never heard of buffer overruns used in this context. Yes, as others have said, large polygons do cause the PCB file size to increase. But in my experience this has been a linear increase reflecting the number of tracks in the polygon. In the past there has been discussion on methods of reducing the sizes of polygons. Again, I have not come across the concept of "buffer overruns" in the context of a file format such as Protels. The Access database format (DDB) is only used to store proprietary BLOB data, and from memory the capacity of Access (for blobs) is 2 GB. Since 32-bit handles are used throughout the servers (as far as I can see from the SDK anyway) this would imply roughly 4 billion entities per file. Now it is possible that Protel chokes on larger files due to bugs or memory handling problems. And I know that there are certain actions using select and move selections that can cause groups of entities to become "sort-of" invisible. But this is not related to file size and I can see how this could be described as a buffer overrun. I would like certainly like to know more about the buffer overruns you describe - especially in regard to the interaction with the autorouter. Thanks, Ian Wilson * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
