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

I gave the Eagle auto router a try - and promptly gave up. I routed the project by hand and got a reasonable layout. If an autorouter is given a pile of layers and internal vias to work with, it will probably come up with something useful, if not optimum. Constrain it to 1 or 2 layers and it will throw a fit. Reality is that it doesn't pay a commercial enterprise to spend time figuring out how to get rid of a few circuit board layers - 6, 8, or 10 layers, who cares. If the design works, just build it and pass the cost on to the consumer. All the competitors are working under the same constraints, and time is your biggest enemy.

However, I need 50 or 100 boards and I don't want to spend more than necessary (meaning my money) to get the job done. This is a very different viewpoint as compared to the typical high tech company.

I must say that I found the Eagle software extremely efficient. Once you get used to it, the Eagle interface is very easy to use - about the best I've ever seen. Maybe Microsoft should pay attention.

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