Hi Bill,

I assume that you are referring to Cisco? I work with a few ex-telecom guys
(not from Cicso) who used to design both telephone and network
switching/routing equipment as recently as two years ago and they all have
a generally negative view of autorouters. They will use them for specific,
well-defined tasks like breaking out a large BGA, but not for the majority
of the traces between ICs. Their boards used to be like the ones you refer
to (>100 square inches, >10 layers, many traces with controlled impedance
and length matching). They think that the best bang for your buck in
automation in PCB layout is in constraints and rule sets, so the tool will
tell you whether the trace you just routed violates any of the requirements
you have set for length matching, etc.

Sean



On Fri, May 24, 2013 at 1:38 AM, William "Chops" Westfield
<westfw@mac.com>wrote:

> > In what professional (or not) setting would one
> > seriously use an autorouter for designing PCBs?
>
> I'm pretty sure that the 15x20 inch, 14-layer boards with a couple dozen
> 144pin ICs, that they make back where I used to work, are mostly autorout=
ed.
>
> BillW
>
>
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