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Subject: Re: [geda-user] New router pictures
From: Stefan Salewski <mail AT ssalewski DOT de>
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Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2014 18:26:04 +0100
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On Mon, 2014-01-13 at 11:10 -0500, Nathan Stewart wrote:
> I'll add my voice to the cheers. Ironic, and not a matter of substance, but
> looking at these routings reminds me of hand drawn boards from the 70's,
> and as a result feel kind of dated. Just an observation and not an actual
> criticism - I'll happily give up hundreds of hours of the equivalent of
> playing tetris for a working autorouter.
> 

This type of router is not really restricted to this shape of traces --
there exists conversion algorithms to convert to more traditional
shapes, as mentioned also in Tal Dayan's thesis, there is an diploma
thesis about that conversion available. Conversion is done when other
tools require i.e. octilinear routed traces. But for PCB boards we
generally do not require that, gerber format supports arcs and lines. 

> I'll also echo Kai-Martin's question - I know that there are quite often
> ciruit imposed rules at a much higher level than the simple design rules -
> minimizing metal attached to the switch pins of a SMPS, for instance.

Yes, autorouters will never be able to consider all fine details.
That is why some code is still written in assembler, some pictures are
still drawn manually by artists...

We may be able to teach the router to consider some properties, but
maybe not all. For multilayer boards, we can always reserve a few layers
to fine manually artwork.