What is the best routing tool ?

[wzj]

Specctra, AutoActive,...What is the best one ?

Thanks.

 

[Fox34]

Hi,
For sure it dependes on the PCB package you are using.For instance, try to use Autoactive with protel and tell me
Regards,

 

[vkem]

On 2001-05-25 11:46, Fox34 wrote:
Hi,
For sure it dependes on the PCB package you are using.For instance, try to use Autoactive with protel and tell me
Regards,

Protel's Native router is an abortion. For most smaller jobs, its just easier to do it manually with a few design rules for sensibility checking.

I'm sure routers are useful when designing motherboards, but 22GHz LNA's ? Hmmm..maybe not. I'm interested in peoples results with other routers, especially if they dont take
months to set up.

Cheers,
Vkem

 

[padspcb]

Hi
I think Vkem has a point here...
I normally use Orcad's bundled autorouter for fast checking of routeability. Then go back to PowerPCB and replace the conflicting parts and do some rearranging, until it goes smoothly.
Then i use the BlazeRouter, finetouch in PowerPCB and mitter/teardrop all.
Afterwards i use ECAM to find the slievers and fix them again in PowerPCB.
Finally generate the gerber for the boards.
>insert commercal here<
By the way, i can make any 2~6 layer board from overnight to 4 days. Vacrel and HotAir lev, with electric test. Anyone needing fast protos, give me a call.

PadsPCB

 

[gometric]

i never try blazerouter, but what i can tell to you guys, the best autorouter for me is Specctra, but most of the time i have a lot of engenering requirements to do the layout so i start doing the board manually.... most of the times i finished it manuallyy too or leave the less complicated part of the circuit to the autorouter.

laszlo

 

[padspcb]

Until the spec*tra 10 the only GRIDLESS router was Blaze. The program requires a Huge ammount of memory, like 1Gb at least to make a realy cool motherboard. The ripup process is nice.
I use also the spec*tra but its slower and now with version 10 has also a gridless mode. But it generates too much junk.

 

[viahole]

I use Protel for most of the job. Do the rest by hand but I also "only" do single and dobbel side PCB, I try protel/Spec*tra but have got the the grib on it yet.
Blazer router haven't tryed, can you import pcb from protel -> pads powerPCB ??

 

[HwMan]

Dear friends

My vote goes to spe**tra. All routers have strong and weak points. Regarding spe**tra, it's not a true diagonal router (there was a nice article in w*w.spe**tra.com form it's author). One of the great strong points is that spe**tra is a standard: there are interfaces and translators to most of the major host CAD systems. With allmost all of the other routers, you are on an island: you're stick to the host CAD or you find a complex, sometimes inaccurate, time consuming method of sucessive translations.

But the final result really depends on the type of pcb you're designing: for very complex designs, spe**tra is by far the best router. For medium-to-large designs, Blaze, AutoActive RE (cute and very promising, this one) also produce good results.
In the real world of routing, there is a gold rule:

NEVER EXPECT A MIRACLE FROM A ROUTER

No matter how good and powrfull the tool is, the person in front of the monitor is allways better!!! In most of the designs, as much as 30% is "hand routing".

Best regards,

HwMan

 

[KARLZ]

hi
i always use OrCAD SmartRoute. it's powerful and fast because of neural network algorithms.
regards

 

[tiger]

I think Cadence's Specctra and Zuken's RouteEditor are far better than other autorouter,both of them have many rules to control the autorouting process,so they can get much better result.In comparision,other autorouters are a bit simple,only suitable to medium complex designs.

 

[CP]

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: CP on 2001-11-15 01:16 ]</font>

 

[RottenFish]

I have used Specctra and Protel for digital designs and works very well. I prefer Protel cause is very easy to use, but I make all the VCC and GND traces by hand, to avoid noise. I have finished a small board, medium complexity (48 ICs) and Protel did the work 100% in 4 minutes!! on my machine. I think that Protel is the best tool if you don't have a super computer with 1GB of memory or so.

 

[nebi]

On 2001-05-26 20:56, RottenFish wrote:
I have used Specctra and Protel for digital designs and works very well. I prefer Protel cause is very easy to use, but I make all the VCC and GND traces by hand, to avoid noise. I have finished a small board, medium complexity (48 ICs) and Protel did the work 100% in 4 minutes!! on my machine. I think that Protel is the best tool if you don't have a super computer with 1GB of memory or so.

Hi folks

the best solution ever is protel99SE (pad versus via topic, you know) for schematics and netlist generation ( some RAM is needed ) in combination with specctra 9.0 on top. It depends on your experiance, but routing by hand is especially for high frequency applications necessary. Never trust an autorouter for multilayer boards.

Good luck

eicher

 

[borisov57]

I found protel very good in routing supplied demo boards, but in real life no thank you.

 

[tedson]

What about
Ultiroute
Ultiboard
and
CircuitMaker 2000 pro ?
Teddy@hhome.ro

 

[net_light]

Today the Hispeed PCB is the main issue in
PCB design area. Just make full persent route
is not enough, to make the board 'work' is
most important. due to this I prefer cadence
solution.their specctraquest combined with
conceptHDL+Allegro+Specctra seems an unbeatable answer now.other tools does not has a such complete solution and even need you translate a lot of things in their own tools env. and still will lost sth during the translation.

 

[House_Cat]

Any autorouter is only as good as the rule set that you establish before you set the router to work.

I prefer to work in P R O TEL, hand route the critical routes, export to SPE**TRA and bring it back into P R O TEL for completion.

For one of my typical >3000 pin boards, it takes a full day to program and review the routing rules before I kick SPE**TRA into action. It takes another full day to do the clean up and checking after importing the result back into the PCB editor.

The P R O TEL router does work - it tends to work better on complex boards than it does on simple boards for some odd reason. I use SPE**TRA only because it can do things that P R O TEL can't. If you decide to use the P R O TEL router, be sure to look at the guidelines in the manufacturers "knowledge base". There are some odd things like no arcs allowed in the board outline, and a few other things that aren't intuitive.

 

[singhjaya]

I use Sp*ecctra.
You have to take the time to describe every net in the .do files, but then it is good for most any type of digital board. This includes things line 32 LVDS differential pairs at 622Mhz, and 2.5Ghz differential pairs. I autoroute virtually the entire board. The only things I do manually are the switching regulator copper fills, fine pitch QFP fanouts and sometimes some of the differential signal fanouts. The boards work every time.

 

[darksky041257]

I have found orcad with the spectra route tool to be just fantastic.

 

[db69]

I think ca*s*ar is the best tool.