I tried different grid setting, etc, but I suspect it doesn't like my relatively fat traces and the 0805s. (I know I could make it denser, particularly vertically.) Regards, Dave J PS - I never got the autorouter to work worth a damn.
Is that really better? Finally, I did rearrange the layers of many traces to cut down on the number of vias and "jumpers." I'm going to let this sit for awhile while I ponder what improvements I could make. I also tried to de-right-anglify when I could, though I have a lot of "T" interfaces and I could not bring myself to turn those into "Y" interfaces. Overall, the hierarchical features on the PCB side are not great, IMHO. (I come from the VLSI world where excellent support for very neat tiling is the norm.) What I found is that if I brought routes to the edge of a "box" so that the box could simply be stacked on top of each other, DipTrace did some weird stuff when I told it to copy the place and route, copying bits and pieces that were not part of the module. The system did not work quite as I had expected. I then used those blocks in the PCB tool. I did use hierarchy in the schematic to make the repeating block fixed. I've tried to incorporate all the advice I've received here into my board. Just lock the components in place where you need them, run autoplace & the result is not a whole lot different on boards of say 100 components or less to what is achieved in Altium. The autoplacement in DipTrace is very quick & easy to set up. In DipTrace, Circad, Target 3001 & Design Spark, this transfer process is quick & easy. What I hate about Altium is the transfer process from Schematic to pcb. In some it is not too bad (ie Diptrace), in some it is a pain (Design Spark) & even Target 3001 was not as easy as in Altium. Library component generation is the thing to check out in these low end packages.
If you think with a German perspective instead of an American/UK/Australian perspective, you will no doubt be fine (a bit like finding your way around the menus in a Samsung mobile phone before Samsung saw the light & moved to Android). You can do quite a lot with Eagle, but you will hate the user commands if you grew up with Protel/Altium. This may not worry some people of course.
#Rotate 45 degrees diptrace software
so what will happen to the software when he retires? I did not like KiCAD because I have no choice to change the pcb board background colour.
It does however cost US$995 & is operated by just one programmer now who is in his late 50's/early 60's. If you grew up with Protel, then Circad is very easy to master as many of the user inputs are the same.
#Rotate 45 degrees diptrace full
They will fix most of these bugs no doubt before the full release which I would expect within the next 3 or 4 months.
The new DipTrace beta version has some great screen advances over version 2.3.1.0, but it is full of bugs & I had to uninstall it & remove the registry keys, then re-install last year's full release as the bugs made it unproductive. This allows me to order standard 1oz pcbs which saves money. I often open up some track solder masks so that the wave soldering adds to the current carrying capability of the track (and/or increases the heat dispersal from the attached components) - but you cannot do this in DipTrace so an import into Altium to finish off is required. You can also import DipTrace schematics & pcbs into Altium via the P-Cad format. It operates (from a user's perspective) in many similar ways to Altium & so the learning curve is not too great. I keep an eye on other pcb software packages (it is sort of a hobby) & I have found DipTrace to be about the best of the low end packages. I also use Altium (ver 6.9) for work (but I can use it at home too - it's allowed under their license).
0 kommentar(er)
