Products

Selective Autorouting to Increase Productivity

By Jim Martens

Autorouting is a nasty word to many designers.  Many would not be caught dead doing anything other than interactively routing the complete design.  Their reasoning may be sound – but dated.  Past generation routers would run a long time, only to leave a design with blocked channels, too many vias, traces that looped around the board, not to mention poor, if any, adherence to high-speed rules.  They would leave many unconnects, and/or DRC conflicts that would need to be resolved manually.

Today’s routers – at least  PADS’, have been designed to deliver high completion rates, with manufacturability in mind.  Minimal cleanup is needed after the routing.  Plus – you can control the routing.  Select only the sections, or nets, or components you want autorouted.  Interactively route the rest!   The autorouter is a tool.  Use it selectively and intelligently to increase your productivity!

There is a great video here to learn more.

Jim

Leave a Reply

This article first appeared on the Siemens Digital Industries Software blog at https://blogs.sw.siemens.com/electronic-systems-design/2013/06/05/selective-autorouting-to-increase-productivity/