On 6 Jul 2011 at 16:03, Andrew Lynch wrote:
You've missed the point entirely. Yes, gEDA
includes a PCB layout
tool (PCB) which includes an autorouter. However, they are closely
coupled and if you want to use the PCB autorouter you must start with
gEDA EDA tool set and stay with it.
Sigh. Music transcription software suffers the same sort of lock-in,
but a modicum of progress has been made with the MusicXML approach.
Unfortunately, add-ons/plugins for import and export to/from the
notation packages are closed-source and often sold separately at
ridiculous prices.
With all of the time that EDA packages have been out, I don't
understand why standard formats for netlist and BOM files haven't
been developed that any autorouter can work from.
For that matter, why couldn't any schematic capture work from the
same two files?
--Chuck