PCB autorouters

[roadkill]

FPGA routers improve design speed/performance by allowing you to assign constraints to the design. Thus, some nets have higher routing priorities than others. The question is, does any PCB routing software offer a similar feature? I can guess that most freeware PCB tools don't...

[mbroker]

I've used Proteus and Circuitmaker/Traxmaker2000 for laying out PCBs here at home. Neither one of them can autoroute worth a lick. At least with these two programs the auto-place feature is what needs work - if the components are well-placed to begin with, then the autorouter does a respectable job. In my limited experience, it is fairly difficult to place components in a "good" location without routing them as well.

Mark

[kiwi_abroad]

Protel, in its latest version, DXP, has extensive routing rules and constraints, including routing priorities. However, I always seem to end up routing everything manually. Especially for simple circuits like amplifiers etc.

What are you wanting to produce?

[roadkill]

Thanks for the info, mbroker and kiwi!
EAGLE-CAD's autorouter has been praised a lot on other forums (dont recall where), even though I found it sucks to the core. I wonder if gEDA (search for it on sourceforge) will ever have this feature.
For stuff like amps, yes, placement is everything. However, right now I'm trying to route a board containing two Analog Devices AD1954 "SigmaDSP" audio processors along with some ADCs and S/PDIF receivers. It's one of the few designs where I've had to use a 2-layer board, and also my first design involving a TQFP. How come none of the SMD components fall on a common grid? Oh well...