Re: gEDA-user: DRC/rat quirks

["KURT PETERS" <peterskurt@xxxxxxx>]

  I think the DRC when laying out is useful, especially when spacing is 
tight.  You can ensure you're keeping things as close as possible without 
breaking design rules.  That being said, it could use a little bit of 
improvement.
  For instance, you must turn it off if you are placing a via to connect 
traces to finish off a rats nest, even if the rats are displayed properly.  
Since the via isn't "seen" by the rats, the DRC won't let you connect to it. 
 You have to turn off the DRC, connect to it, press "o" again, reselect the 
line button, and then turn DRC back on.  It's a reasonably painful process. 
A solution might be to have the rat connect to the nearest, unconnected via 
and go on from there to the pad it's supposed to go to... or allow DRC to 
connect to unconnected vias, while avoiding vias that have connections.

Regards,
Kurt

------------------------------

Message: 5
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2007 14:11:47 -0500
From: DJ Delorie <dj@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: gEDA-user: DRC/rat quirks
To: geda-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Message-ID: <200702131911.l1DJBlsU006414@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>


> That's one.  Another is that the rats for a net don't go away unless
> you can get your line to end exactly the right place, which doesn't
> work for me even with "snap to pad".

I'd like to see a test case for this.

> Also, the rat wire should give visual feedback as you route a net --
> rats to routed pads should disappear as you place tracks that
> complete segments.

With the lesstif HID, you could call the rats-optimize action on each
mouse button release ;-)

> As for the DRC, I've played with a few boards.  Each time I end up
> with at least one rat wire going between two pads which I can't
> route because the auto-DRC won't let me onto the second pad.

It's also sensitive to which side you started on.  Start on the pad
that's already wired in, and connect to the one that isn't.  Also
check your netlist.  Still, a test case would help.

Me, I don't use auto-drc.  I use the 'o' key to tell me when I screwed
up, plus the 'f' key to highlight what I'm *supposed* to be routing
to.




_______________________________________________
geda-user mailing list
geda-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user