Re: [avr-chat] Schematics & PCB design software

[Anton Erasmus]

On 17 Feb 2009 at 14:12, Peter LaDow wrote:
Copies to:              
> On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 12:22 PM, Anton Erasmus <address@hidden> wrote:
> >
> > Kicad supports the http://www.freerouting.net/ autorouter as well as
> > the Electra and Specctra (Cadence) autorouters.
> > The completion rate and speed of Electra and Specctra are about 3 orders
> > of magnitude better than any of the other PCB autorouters I have seen.
> 
> Ah!  Thanks for the link to freerouting.  I've been using Eagle, and
> have been seriously considering the switch to Kicad or gEDA because of
> the board size and layer limitations.  I've routed all my boards by
> hand, and it is time consuming and gets frustrating at times.  And
> having an autorouter available for free tools has me wanting to
> re-evaluate the Kicad/gEDA world.
> 

Just to give an idea of the speed of Specctra and Electra routers. My friend
did a full size PC Interface Card with a 32-bit CPU, RAM etc. on a 4 layer 
board.
It took him in the order 60 hours to fully route the PCB. Specctra routed the 
same board
with the same design rules in less than 2 minutes. The one Demo PCB in 
Protal/Altium 
which the Protel/Altium router routes on 8 layers in about 3 hours, Specctra 
routes in
2 layers using the same clearances and track widths in less than 5 minutes.

Regards
  Anton Erasmus
-- 
A J Erasmus