No you still need to route ground.
You probably read it in conjunction with ground planes. If you have a
multilayer board and one layer is left a solid area as ground plane you
don't need to route much, since all ground pins simply tie into that
ground plane with no traces needed.
But when you don't have a dedicated ground plane you must of course route
it. I tend to route them early because ground path is important in many
circuits.
About not seeing them in the ratsnest, i understand what you mean. Having
the supply links makes it harder to see signal paths and identify which
components must be close at the positioning stage (because power chains
can often be random order).
In my software i can switch signals on and off for ratsnest display, maybe
eagle has a similar option. Some layout tools allow colored ratsnests,
which is a huge plus.
ST
On Sat, 11 Mar 2006 03:19:38 +0100, kilocycles <
kilocycles@...>
wrote:
> At some point in our discusssions on Eagle this week, and this
>
> probably applies to other CAD programs as well, not routing power and
>
> grounds was mentioned. On several boards, I've not used the supply
>
> device/symbol to tie the power connections together, as it adds
>
> considerably to the complexity of routing. I've just added solder pad
>
> components to power connection points, and I've run multiple power
>
> wires to the board, using the supply signal/device only once, with
>
> solpads added as needed at both the supply and supplied component
>
> networks.
>
>
> I could obviously do the same thing with signal grounds, but there
>
> would be several orders of magnitude more complexity in wiring by
>
> doing that.
>
>
> I've done some boards where the last step was adding the grounds to
>
> the schematic, after all components were added, making it easier to
>
> route the board manually as I added components, not having to deal
>
> with gnd in the ratsnest until the end.
>
>
> Unless I missed something, I think I read in one of the recent posts
>
> that grounds don't have to be routed??? They do have to be connected
>
> on the schematic to, say, a resistor, capacitor, etc. otherwise there
>
> will be an electrical rules check error for an unconnected pin.
>
>
> Can someone clarify this?
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ted