Question regarding Diptrace.

I decided to try this because I was laying out a board that was way outside of Eagle's capabilities (free version). This is a vertical backplane board housing 6 pairs of XLRs and 6 pairs of RCAs, some relays, etc.

Do you guys trust the autorouter? I manually placed the jacks on 1: x and 1.5: y grid, and locked them. I then manually placed the relays in the best spot (I think), locked them, then let it place the rest of the components.

I adjusted some net trace widths, but let it autoroute. Seemed OK once I did a few tweaks to it, but just wanted to get some input, as I normally wouldn't trust an autorouter in a non-commercial package.

Yes and no. I auto route one trace at a time and then fix it if I have to. Most of them I do tweak if just for the cleaner look.

How do you autoroute one at a time? Also, is there an easy way to set default trace width? It seems to default to a pretty small trace. I did figure out how to set the width for an entire net, but would like to also default tos omething larger.

Does it generate an accompanying schematic that you could use to verify the connections?

I did a schematic first and used that to generate the board... only way to do it IMO. Fortunately, it will import Eagle libraries (when exported in the correct format), which helps alot. I was having a hard time figuring out how to do my own in Diptrace, and since I can't use it at home (PC only), my time is limited.

Chris:

The newest (dev) version has a shape based autorouter that is much better. What version do you have?

How do you autoroute one at a time?

You right click on it and go to route trace or something like that. At least that's how it was on the older version, haven't used the new one much.

Edited February 26, 201016 yr by spritzer

Chris:

The newest (dev) version has a shape based autorouter that is much better. What version do you have?

2.0.07 is the one I am using.

You right click on it and go to route trace or something like that. At least that's how it was on the older version, haven't used the new one much.

I ripped up all the traces and decided to route the signal stuff manually, as I already knew how I wanted them done. I'll let the autorouter deal with the remnants after I lock the ones I did manually

I'd recommend upgrading to at least 2.1.0.2

http://diptrace.com/downloads/dipfree_en.exe

I'm nearly finished with first attempt at a four layer board. I've never really needed the extra layers until now. This particular board contains all through-hole parts. I managed to route everything in two layers except for power and ground. This is a 100% digital design. The idea was to create one solid plane for ground and stick this in its own layer, and another for Vcc and put it in its own layer as well. So, I did this. I was thinking of putting the ground layer as the top layer, and the Vcc layer as the bottom layer. Anything I should keep in mind, when setting up these two new layers as GND and Vcc? Seems to work fine, with both as planes, but this is my first four layer project and just didn't know if there were anything common things to look out for.

We have released DipTrace for Mac OS X (version 2.1.0.7).

http://www.diptrace.com/downloads/DipTrace.dmg (128 Mb)

This is Freeware (300 pin) edition, however it can be converted to any

edition or trial with your registration key. It also requires right

mouse button as this is originally Windows application.

Sorry to dredge up an old topic. I have started using DIptrace again (3.2.0.1), and am getting along with it (more or less). However, when generating Gerbers, some of the top silk is not appearing when using gerber viewers such as the one on SeeedStudio's site (or gerber-viewer.easyeda, which appears to be the same engine). Specifically, electrolytic cap outlines aren't shown. If I view the gerber file in some other gerber viewers (gerber-viewer.com or CircuitPeople's) they appear OK. Viewing much of the same board, done in Eagle, appears fine.

Any thoughts? I imported the schematic and parts libraries from Eagle, but did the layout in DIptrace. The parts in question did come from an Eagle library, but replacing one of the caps with one from Diptrace didn't seem to solve the problem.

Some pics:  This is a gerber from Eagle, on seeedstudio's gerber viewer

This is a similar board, only from Diptrace:

And finally, the same board from Diptrace, but this time using gerber-viewer.com

Edited December 17, 20178 yr by Pars
added pics

Have you checked which layer those outlines are in in Eagle on the parts?

The outlines are in 21 tPlace in Eagle (where they should be). They are in the top silk layer in Diptrace (and not the top assy layer). The parts appear correctly in the Preview in Diptrace.
A person from SeeedStudio replied in an email not to worry. The gerber viewer sometimes has issues.



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