(added missing [EE] tag)

Olin Lathrop wrote:
>> We all know that Eagle's autorouter cannot be relied upon to do a
>> good job, and the results it produces require manual tweaking.
>
> No, we don't all "know" this.  I've found the Eagle autorouter to be a 
> very
> useful tool.  It is one part of the overall routing process.  You can't 
> just
> throw a board at it and forget it, but then again you can't do that with 
> any
> other autorouter either.  As with any complicated tool, you have to take 
> the
> time to learn it properly and tweak the details for what you are trying to
> do.  Once you've done that with the Eagle autorouter you can get very 
> decent
> results.
>
> If you don't want to take the time to read the manual, several times,
> understand what each of the settings do, get experience with them, learn 
> how
> to set it up for different situations, and instead just use the defaults
> then you're right, the Eagle autorouter "doesn't work".  However I doubt 
> you
> will find one that does under those conditions.  Perhaps there are some 
> that
> are more forgiving of lazy or incompetent users, but in the end you're not
> likely to get professional results without effort no matter what tool you
> use.

Perhaps our definitions of "good job" and "decent results" are very 
different?

This is not the first board I did in Eagle. I've read the manual cover to 
cover, and I refer to it regularly. I think I have a pretty good 
understanding and even an intiutive feeling for what the autorouter settings 
do. I don't consider myself a lazy or incompetent user. I have tried to make 
the autorouter work on many occasions, with every board I've worked on, and 
every time the results were less than optimal -- I had to either move almost 
every trace, or rip them up and re-route by hand. And the more experience I 
get, the more I tend to route my boards manually. Not because I like it, but 
because I can't stand the results that Eagle produces.

Based on other people's posts here and on eagle.support.eng, I believe I'm 
not alone in considering Eagle's autorouter to be a mediocre one. Of course, 
you get what you pay for -- and that's fine, but that's also exactly why I 
don't mind paying extra for something that can do a better job.

I'd love to see what kinds of results you're able to get from Eagle's 
autorouter, preferably before any manual tweaking. Maybe there are some 
magic settings that I'm not aware of, or some trick that I don't know...

Vitaliy 

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