Does freerouter route ground pins when perfomring autorouting?

On 27/05/2014 17:46, Alex Monari wrote:

Hi all,

 

I'd like to use freerouting.com's program to perform autowriting. I'm

able to create the DSN file successfully after using the following .ulp

file eagle2freerouter.ulp which I downloaded from the official Cadsoft

downloads page. (http://www.cadsoftusa.com/downloads/ulps/)

 

I'm successfully able to successfully perform autorouting as per the

following instructions. (http://www.freerouting.net/pages/eagle.html)

 

Apologies if my question sounds basic but I'm unable to understand why

the ground pins seem not to be routed. All my ground pins as per my .brd

file in eagle contain airwires which I expect to be routed as the way

eagleautorouter does it.

 

I've had a look at a board routed using freerouter as per this link and

it is seems to me the groudn pins as per the attached files do not

contain traces running from them. Any idea why?

 

• See attachment called unrouted .brd file in eagle for my unrouted .brd

file in eagle.

• See attachment called the .dsn file autorouted using freerouter for my

dsn file autorouted using freerouter.

• See attachment titled EASYDAQ-XBEE v4sch.dsn to download my .dsn file.

• See attachment called EASYDAQ-XBEE v4sch.scr this link to download my

scr file.

• See attachment called EASYDAQ-XBEE v4sch.sch for my .sch file.

• See attachment called EASYDAQ-XBEE v4sch.brd for my .brd file.

 

I appreciate any answers.

 

Regards,

Alex.

 

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Attachments:

EASYDAQ-XBEE v4sch.scr.zip

EASYDAQ-XBEE v4sch.dsn.zip

unrouted .brd file in eagle.png

dsn file autorouted using freerouter.png

 

Alex,

You are using a very old version of eagle2freerouter.ulp, I have

attached the latest version (April 19, 2014). As I do not have a Google

account, I cannot download the .brd file, please post directly in the

Freerouter technical support forum.

The net names in the DSN file do not have quotes around them, which is

not correct, and possibly caused by spaces inside their names.

Robert

Hi Robert,

Thanks for the updated file. I've posted my reply here http://www.freerouting.net/fen/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=269 with links you can download the files. The forum didn't allow me to upload specific file extensions and I don't have zippinig software on my PC.

Thanks.

On 28/05/2014 11:53, Alex Monari wrote:

Hi Robert,

 

Thanks for the updated file. I've posted my reply here

http://www.freerouting.net/fen/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=269 with links you

can download the files. The forum didn't allow me to upload specific

file extensions and I don't have zippinig software on my PC.

 

Thanks.

 

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Hi Alex,

Just tested it, and it works OK. Since you have defined a "GND" polygon

on both the top and the bottom layer over the whole board, the wiring

signal "GND" is not routed, as it is already connected when loading the

GND polygons.

If you delete the two GND polygon definitions in the DSN file (wiring is

the last segment of the DSN file), you will see that the GND signal is

properly routed.

Since signal polygons can breakup in routing, the eagle2freerouter

converter allows you to specify the suppression of specific signal

polygons (GND in this case) before Freerouter runs, forcing full routing

of the GND signal. When loading the result into the Eagle BRD file, the

polygons are added to get the copper back, but now you are sure that

there are no orphan areas.

The converter has a lot of options to add to the Eagle functionality,

look in the heading of the ULP under User modifiable parameters.

In this case, modify: string poly_drop = "";

into: string poly_drop = "GND";

R.

Hi Robert,

Based on your above comments would there be any issues/problems if I were to manually route the ground pins together as seen in this screenshot whilst I maintain the GND polygon I defined on both the top and bottom layers of the board?

Here's the link to the screenshot: https://5a600546-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/bgedsadata/HAND%20ROUTED%20GND%20PINS%20WITH%20GND%20ON%20TOP%20AND%20BOTTOM

Apologies if the question sounds silly but I need to know before dedicating effort to routing the rest of the board.

Regards,

Alex.

Hi Alex,

[I can't see the screenshot as I stay away from google, but that does

not matter]

Sure, route the ground pins manually together, as I mentioned before I

sometimes do that as I want to avoid that a (GND) polygon is broken into

orphans. Make sure that you lock the GND wires before you autoroute, if

you want to keep them they way you routed. But they are absorbed in your

100% GND polygon coverage anyway.

I just wonder why you cover top and bottom of a 2 layer board completely

with GND polygons. Unless you have no significant other wiring, they

will be cut up in pieces by the other signals anyway. you could place by

hand via's to stich the 2 ground planes back up again, but that seems

very tedious.

Robert

On 04/06/2014 14:13, Alex Monari wrote:

Hi Robert,

 

Based on your above comments would there be any issues/problems if I

were to manually route the ground pins together as seen in this

screenshot whilst I maintain the GND polygon I defined on both the top

and bottom layers of the board?

 

Here's the link to the screenshot:

https://5a600546-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/bgedsadata/HAND%20ROUTED%20GND%20PINS%20WITH%20GND%20ON%20TOP%20AND%20BOTTOM

 

Apologies if the question sounds silly but I need to know before

dedicating effort to routing the rest of the board.

 

Regards,

Alex.

 

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