Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Homebrew PCBs

Hi everyone:

Thanks for the responses.

I am finding that the Autorouter is just as everyone has described, virtually useless. I have "ripped" up my first try and am about
to embark on a second with your suggestions in mind.

I really appreciate your advice and counsel on this.

For 15 years I worked at a place in San Antonio, Texas named Southwest Research Institute. This was prior 1989 when I moved on from
there. As one of my responsibilities, I used to sit in a secure room at a light table a big part of the day and route PC's using
film paper and "sticky tape". Then we would each do the negatives, order production and test our own boards.

Sometimes it was done from just an engineering sketch that I had to make into a drawing out of using a drafting table and straight
edge, ect and sometimes from a complete schematic drawing (depending on the engineer).

We had rules then about spacing's, widths, angles, donut sizes, ect. I remember most of them and they seem to have been implemented
in the software rules as well.

But the fun of it was figuring out the routing and positioning, and making it all work, at least when you were allowed to. Sometimes
the Senior Engineer would tell you where certain parts had to be placed, along with ground planes, then you had to make the rest of
the board work. That made things a bit tough at times.

We did single, and multiple layer boards. Then we would take the film to the PC lab where they did the actual building of the boards
according to our specifications we asked for on the order sheet.

But using the applications are a lot different.

LOL at first it almost seemed it was going to be easier to find a light table somewhere and some tape. But I will hang in there and
should be able to accomplish the task of learning the software especially with the help you guys are offering.

Again, thanks very much.

Bob AD5VJ