Hi Cary,
It's because I am an autorouter junkie. I only have so much hobby-time and I believe that using the autorouter saves me a good deal of time.
So what I'm really after is a free CAD that will autoroute the 4 layers. I don't want to have to chose which trace goes on which layer, I'd obsess about those choices for countless hours on end constantly wondering if there is a better way. The boards I make are not worth that time investment.
With the DipTrace autorouter I just spend an hour or two moving and adding vias to match my assembly process and call it good.
My DipTrace process works very well but I don't get the component density I'd like. Also, even though I use a lot of SMD I don't save as many drill holes as I'd like due to all the extra vias that are used merely to hop over other traces. I'm convinced that a 4 layer board will reduce my via count significantly.
Regards,
Royce
--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, cary heestand <c.hhestand@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Royce, while I'm new at all this and no expert. Why can't you make four layer boards by the following?
>
> Make a netlist with the traces that you want on layer one and save them.
>
> Make a netlist with layer two traces and save that.
>
> Do the same for all the other layers.
>
> Print and etch all your layers separately and then glue or bond them together. As long as your doing your own etching the end board won't know the difference.
>
> You would have to put registration points on each layer. and you would have to print test sheets to make sure the registration points were all the same distance apart. you might have to name each layer different to get around the two layer limit of the software.
>
> But the software wouldn't know it was the same schematic.
>
> Just my dumb take on a way to do it, Cary
>
> --- On Tue, 11/3/09, roycepipkins <royce.pipkins@...> wrote:
>
>
> From: roycepipkins <royce.pipkins@...>
> Subject: [Homebrew_PCBs] Re: Schematic Capture/PCB Creation program of choice?
> To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Tuesday, November 3, 2009, 1:35 PM
>
>
>
>
>
>
> More power to you on the better tutorials.
>
> I been wanting to switch to KiCad to get free 4 layer design, but I expect it will be quite a learning curve. So I've been procrastinating and sticking with the free 2 layer DipTrace that takes about 15 minutes to learn to the point of significant usability.
>
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