gEDA-user: Routing comments

Here are a few observations while routing my PCB. The auto route usually works great on a limited number of short traces with a good placement. It was also impressive on the last dozen long traces with the near empty fourth routing layer. Sometimes it fails to route on a very simple short trace but I was able to route using the line tool by clicking the start and end point and that’s also great. Sometimes it failed to complete the connection to the first half of the trace that I had manually routed and I had to delete the trace and restart. It was bit odd to be looking at two halves of the trace with a 1/10” rats between them and not being able to complete the connection. When the auto-route fails using signal it can often be routed with skinny. I suspect the auto router likes to have more clearance than is always necessary since another technique routes the trace using signal. Another observation I had to unlock a component to route it and then relock it and I guess that’s built in. Optimize rats gives a report as to how many rats are outstanding but after some use does not give the reporting window and I hope this is it a case of no errors no report other than congratulations when it’s finished. The oddest trace that was difficult to rout would auto rout avoiding an empty space. I could not manually rout it through that space going top down but I had an easy success the other direction. Regards Ian.