EAGLE FEATURE SURVEY

On 23/08/2012 23:38, Jorge_Garcia wrote:

Hello fellow EAGLE users,

 

I've made a simple GoogleDocs Form as a type of survey and I would like to gather as much feedback as possible. The survey has only one question: What features would you like to see in future versions of EAGLE? Simply select the radio button of the feature you'd like to see, type in a few comments if you so desire and hit the submit button. That's it.

 

Here's the link for the form:

 

http://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEF4MWdPVXgxNjdHMk9aWE5wOTNyQmc6MQ

 

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reply to this thread.

 

Thanks in advance for your participation.

 

Best Regards,

Jorge Garcia

Cadsoft Support

 

First on a Mac using Safari I can only choose one button. Not really a

problem because the biggest problem for me, by far, is the auto-router.

Other things may be awkward but I can get round or by them. The auto

router works OK on two layer boards with through hole components. On

surface mount multilayer boards it is almost useless. It will sometimes

not use a layer at all.

For many circuits there are benefits to hand routing, especially as the

frequency goes up, but for hundreds of I/O ports on a relatively slow

micro-controller, hand routing is tedious and difficult in the extreme.

Someone mentioned this would need a lot of code. I think they are

missing the point. What the auto-router needs is a good algorithm that

treats layers as equals when routing. Most people have computers with

multiple fast cores. There is potential for a giant leap in router

performance.

      Andrew

PS as a benefit it would not require practically any interface changes

so those steeped in the program would have no problems.

On 9/7/2012 12:02 PM, Andrew Forrest wrote:

First on a Mac using Safari I can only choose one button. Not really a

problem because the biggest problem for me, by far, is the auto-router.

Other things may be awkward but I can get round or by them. The auto

router works OK on two layer boards with through hole components. On

surface mount multilayer boards it is almost useless. It will sometimes

not use a layer at all.

 

For many circuits there are benefits to hand routing, especially as the

frequency goes up, but for hundreds of I/O ports on a relatively slow

micro-controller, hand routing is tedious and difficult in the extreme.

 

Someone mentioned this would need a lot of code. I think they are

missing the point. What the auto-router needs is a good algorithm that

treats layers as equals when routing. Most people have computers with

multiple fast cores. There is potential for a giant leap in router

performance.

 

      Andrew

 

PS as a benefit it would not require practically any interface changes

so those steeped in the program would have no problems.

Hi Andrew,

I hope you're doing well. There's a couple of things that can be done to

guide the AUTOROUTER to do what you want to do. For example a common

task that people like to automate is via drops to a ground or power

plane. The general idea is that you route a short distance from the SMD

pad and then drop a via to the power layer.

The autorouter can do that for you without issue here's the setup:

1. In the command line type AUTO GND VCC ... and press enter. Since you

only want to drop to the power planes only those signals should be

routed by specifying them before hand the autorouter will only route

those nets.

2. In the route and bus tabs set the maximum number of vias value to

9999. This tells EAGLE to use as many vias as necessary to route the

net, if you use the defaults that's when you see EAGLE start routing

between components instead of dropping straight down.

3. Disable the optimize runs, the purpose of the optimize runs is to

minimize the number of vias which is not what you want for this application.

If you run it with those parameters you'll find that it does a pretty

good job of dropping straight to your power planes.

This is not to take away from the suggestion, my purpose here is just to

allow you to make better use of what's available now.

hth,

Jorge Garcia

Cadsoft Support

On 9/7/2012 12:02 PM, Andrew Forrest wrote:

First on a Mac using Safari I can only choose one button. Not really a

problem because the biggest problem for me, by far, is the auto-router.

Other things may be awkward but I can get round or by them. The auto

router works OK on two layer boards with through hole components. On

surface mount multilayer boards it is almost useless. It will sometimes

not use a layer at all.

 

For many circuits there are benefits to hand routing, especially as the

frequency goes up, but for hundreds of I/O ports on a relatively slow

micro-controller, hand routing is tedious and difficult in the extreme.

 

Someone mentioned this would need a lot of code. I think they are

missing the point. What the auto-router needs is a good algorithm that

treats layers as equals when routing. Most people have computers with

multiple fast cores. There is potential for a giant leap in router

performance.

 

      Andrew

 

PS as a benefit it would not require practically any interface changes

so those steeped in the program would have no problems.

Hi Andrew,

I hope you're doing well. There's a couple of things that can be done to

guide the AUTOROUTER to do what you want to do. For example a common

task that people like to automate is via drops to a ground or power

plane. The general idea is that you route a short distance from the SMD

pad and then drop a via to the power layer.

The autorouter can do that for you without issue here's the setup:

1. In the command line type AUTO GND VCC ... and press enter. Since you

only want to drop to the power planes only those signals should be

routed by specifying them before hand the autorouter will only route

those nets.

2. In the route and bus tabs set the maximum number of vias value to

9999. This tells EAGLE to use as many vias as necessary to route the

net, if you use the defaults that's when you see EAGLE start routing

between components instead of dropping straight down.

3. Disable the optimize runs, the purpose of the optimize runs is to

minimize the number of vias which is not what you want for this application.

If you run it with those parameters you'll find that it does a pretty

good job of dropping straight to your power planes.

This is not to take away from the suggestion, my purpose here is just to

allow you to make better use of what's available now.

hth,

Jorge Garcia

Cadsoft Support