5 Jul
2011
5 Jul
'11
5:30 p.m.
Copied from KiCAD-users mailing list. Hobbyists have long needed a
free/open source PCB autorouter for their EDA tool suites. One is now in
development. Please support this project. This is not my project but one I
strongly believe is very good for EDA hobbyists. Certainly useful for KiCAD
and maybe gEDA as well.
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Hi All,
I'm working on a project here
http://sourceforge.net/projects/qautorouter/
It is an auto-router that is written in C++ on Qt application framework,
reads/writes specctra file format and uses a plug-in style of interface
for the router engines.
It is very alpha at this stage, I have much of the UI, file I/O, and the
plug-in API operational. I am working on a "Simple Router" plug-in at
the moment that is implementing a simplified version of the expanding
box algorithm. The Simple Router will be used as a sort of template for
debugging the plugin-api and as a template for developing more
sophisticated plug-ins. Toporouter would be a good one.
In any case, it would be great to get a few other people on-board, a
developer or two that is quite proficient in C++ would be very helpful,
some hands-on with Qt would help a lot too.
Someone to look after the Windows(tm) and Mac OS-X build and release
would be very helpful.
Someone to help with packaging; windows installer, Mac OSX installer,
and linux .deb, .rpm packages would be helpful as well.
If you're interested, please just send me a little about what you can
contribute, and your sourceforge id.
Kind Regards,
Mike Sharkey
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5 Jul
5 Jul
5:58 p.m.
On Tue, Jul 5, 2011 at 8:30 PM, Andrew Lynch <lynchaj at yahoo.com> wrote:
Copied from KiCAD-users mailing list. Hobbyists have
long needed a
free/open source PCB autorouter for their EDA tool suites. One is now in
development. Please support this project. This is not my project but one
I
strongly believe is very good for EDA hobbyists. Certainly useful for
KiCAD
and maybe gEDA as well.
Hi Andrew,
There's this one for gEDA which has been around for several years.
PCB, http://pcb.gpleda.org/news.html
And it's available on sourceforge, http://sourceforge.net/projects/pcb/
And you can track the progress here, https://launchpad.net/pcb/
Why reinvent the wheel ??
They could probably use more coders to support this.
=Dan
11:36 p.m.
On 7/5/11 8:58 PM, Dan Roganti wrote:
That's the one I've been using for about eight years now. It is
excellent. I've done several commercial projects with it, as well as
personal stuff. It is undergoing extremely fast-paced development.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
Copied from
KiCAD-users mailing list. Hobbyists have long needed a
free/open source PCB autorouter for their EDA tool suites. One is now in
development. Please support this project. This is not my project but one
I
strongly believe is very good for EDA hobbyists. Certainly useful for
KiCAD
and maybe gEDA as well.
There's this one for gEDA which has been around for several years.
PCB, http://pcb.gpleda.org/news.html
And it's available on sourceforge, http://sourceforge.net/projects/pcb/
And you can track the progress here, https://launchpad.net/pcb/
Why reinvent the wheel ??
They could probably use more coders to support this. 
6 Jul
6 Jul
8:45 a.m.
On 7/6/2011 12:36 AM, Dave McGuire wrote:
That's the one I've been using for about eight
years now. It is
excellent. I've done several commercial projects with it, as well as
personal stuff. It is undergoing extremely fast-paced development.
It is not PCB software you buy, but the user libraries of components.
-Dave
Ben.
8:53 a.m.
On 07/06/2011 11:45 AM, ben wrote:
Uh, no. PCB layout software is actually fairly complex, by necessity.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
That's the
one I've been using for about eight years now. It is
excellent. I've done several commercial projects with it, as well as
personal stuff. It is undergoing extremely fast-paced development.
It is not PCB software you buy, but the user libraries of components.
9:07 a.m.
On 7/6/2011 9:53 AM, Dave McGuire wrote:
Uh, no. PCB layout software is actually fairly complex, by necessity.
I think it is the other way myself, you add all the features that you
think is needed
to sell a product. How often is N'th decimal place track size and grid
needed when 99% of the time you work with grids 1/10 of a inch. Note I
have been doing digital not analog
work. The PCB program I use ( older version) can't even autoroute since
it wants to run
minimum routing rules. The real way to route would be different
algorithm not yet found.
Ben.
-Dave
9:23 a.m.
On 7/6/11 12:07 PM, ben wrote:
That may be, but that doesn't imply simplicity. PCB layout, except
for the simplest of newbie projects, is a complex task.
Uh, no. PCB
layout software is actually fairly complex, by necessity.
I think it is the other way myself, you add all the features that you
think is needed
to sell a product. How often is N'th decimal place track size and
grid
needed when 99% of the time you work with grids 1/10 of a inch. Note I
have been doing digital not analog
Wow, no. I haven't seen a 0.1"-grid-based PCB layout since I was a
kid. My layouts are not particularly dense, and my grids are typically
set to 0.005" or 0.001".
work. The PCB program I use ( older version) can't
even autoroute since
it wants to run
minimum routing rules. The real way to route would be different
algorithm not yet found.
This is definitely a problem. Good autorouters are few and far between.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
9:36 a.m.
On 7/6/2011 10:23 AM, Dave McGuire wrote:
Yep, that is why I still need to manual route. Audio projects have kept
me from
digital work, so maybe NEXT year I'll build a 12/36 bit CPU*. I want to have
music while my hearing is still good. :)
Wow, no. I haven't seen a 0.1"-grid-based PCB
layout since I was a kid.
My layouts are not particularly dense, and my grids are typically set to
0.005" or 0.001".
Oops. I was thinking pads here. Really most of the lines need to avoid
pads and via's.
work. The PCB program I use ( older version)
can't even autoroute since
it wants to run
minimum routing rules. The real way to route would be different
algorithm not yet found.
This is definitely a problem. Good autorouters are few and far between. -Dave
Ben.
* PS. I better hurry while my vision is good so I can see the
IC's^H^H^H^HTransistors
on the PCB. :)
10:03 a.m.
On Wed, Jul 6, 2011 at 12:36 PM, ben <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> wrote:
On 7/6/2011 10:23 AM, Dave McGuire wrote:
Wow, no. I haven't seen a 0.1"-grid-based PCB layout since I was a kid.
I think it also depends on the component packages you like to use.
When you dealing with many BGA components, you like to have an autorouter
which can support 45deg routing on single traces. It'll save on layers, let
alone save your project.
I'm still trying to find out if the gEDA PCB can support this. Plus with
differential signaling very common on FPGA's now, it's nice to have one that
supports 45 deg routing of differential pairs.
=Dan
My layouts are not particularly dense, and my
grids are typically set to
0.005" or 0.001".
Oops. I was thinking pads here. Really most of the lines need to avoid
pads and via's.
10:05 a.m.
On 6 Jul 2011 at 11:53, Dave McGuire wrote:
Uh, no. PCB layout software is actually fairly
complex, by
necessity.
PCB layout, no matter the toolset, is one task I loathe. Mentally,
it isn't any easier for me using an EDA package than it was in the
days of mylar sheet, tape and india ink. Perhaps I lack a certain
capability of visualization.
I'm lousy at untangling granny knots from balls of twine as well.
My hat's off to those who can do this sort of thing almost second-
naturedly.
--Chuck
4919
days inactive
4919
days old
9 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
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bfranchuk＠jetnet.ab.ca -
cclist＠sydex.com -
lynchaj＠yahoo.com -
mcguire＠neurotica.com -
ragooman＠gmail.com