Autorouter preprocessing error

[34563456]

When I try to use the autorouter in ultiboard I get an error popping up saying

Error during autorouter preprocessing.
Source: Autorouter
Parameter Error

And it won't go any further (even on VERY simple circuits, 3 components), however when I load up a sample file the autorouter runs perfectly.

Can anyone help

[lacy]

I am unable to re-create this error by placing these components and routing them on my Ultiboard. It may help if you could post your original Ultiboard file as it may be something in your settings causing this.

[34563456]

Attached is the Multisim & Ultiboard files of my test circuit

[lacy]

I wish I knew what was causing this, but even with your files I am unable to re-create the error. I will let the NI Support Team further address this situation as they may have dealt with this error before.

Sorry I wasn't of much help.

[kittmaster]

imported your netlist, placed components in design area, routed to 100%

If you have a cracked version, that could be the issue. I've seen this under mostly those conditions, not to say your is.

[GrahamG]

Hi there

Again I have failed to reproduce this error as you can see in the two files below it seemed to route correctly.

Can you think of any other action that you have processed on your setup that I can attempt to reproduce. The components you are using for example, which library did you get these from, can you reproduce a similar error using other components or is it very specific to these three.

If you can narrow down exactly where the error is stemming from then hopefully together we can find a solution or at least a work around that will allow you to continue with your application.

best regards and I look forward to hearing from you.

[misiek]

I did reproduce this error. In fact i encountered one in my first design. And it seems it is triggered with design units setting.
When i use imperial units like "mil" then everythings fine, but when i try to use metric units like "mm" then autorouter is reporting "parameter error".
I suppose units are not stored in UB design file, so loading above example with default imperial units works OK.
Also problem is reported only when "Gridbased" or "Progressive" routing mode is selected in options, switching to "Gridless" resolves it.
Another thing, seems autorouter will not place routes on Copper bottom with 1 pair of layers, even if its only routable layer selected (reporting 0 connections), rendering it useless with small simple one-copper layer designs.It works just fine in UB9.

[lacy]

Thank you for the information about this as I was not aware that the measuring units are possibly not being stored with the file. It shouldn't make a difference as to which units were used in the design as Ultiboard should be able to load it reguardless or convert it if necessary.

 I am curious about your single-sided routing situation that you decribed. Could you possibly be able to post a file that is giving you this problem for us and NI to examine?

[misiek]

Thank you for response, however you may simply ignore what i have written, as i figured problems myself 🙂 I will elaborate.

First of autorouter and metric/imperial problem. Seems it was resolved in 10.0.1 version of software, and i was evaluating 10.0 earlier.
I have had copy lying around for some time, and no time to play with, didnt bother to check for updates aswell, so its entirely my fault and i apologize i mislead You.
I should include build of software i was using in my previous post, my bad 😞
Now after an hour of trying updated version i cant reproduce error aswell. Units are stored properly in project file too, i tried few combinations of saving/reopening with different settings and didnt notice any errors.

Second problem i reported, about autorouter ignoring routable Copper Bottom in PCB properties. It seems that after transfering circuit from Multisim all nets are defaulted to be routed only on Copper Top, and changing setting in PCB properties do not affect this, as Copper Bottom is unchecked. So it can be resolved by manually rechecking all nets to Copper Bottom. It is rather inconvinience than error, still its tedious task, as i didnt found a way to change them all at once. After checking all nets autorouter is finally routing bottom as ordered.

BTW, same thing goes for design settings, when transfering from Multisim theres popup where you specify units, traces and clearences, and its working fine until you decide to change those parameters later on. Again messing with PCB settings changes nothing, because Ultiboard respects individual net settings above those in global design. ("Save as default" doesn't help much). And you have to change each net manually which is even worse than Copper Bottom thing.

And few thoughts at the end. I may be wrong all over again, as I'm no expert with EWB software, and maybe those default settings have its purpose, but IMO default board transferred from Multisim should have both sides of copper checked, logical to its PCB setting (2 layers of copper). And second, default design parameters for nets should be set to "Use design rules from PCB options", or there should be defaut group created with this setting. If someone needs them tweaked for multiple sizes/clearences in bigger project, one has to edit each of them manually anyways, or group them.

All above was tested with build 10.0.343, default circuit from 555 timer wizard, just generated circuit, transferred it to Ultiboard (in popup: units: mm, traces: 1mm, clearences: 0.5mm), autoplaced.

Cheers

[lacy]

O.k. That clears up the reason I am not able to reproduce this error as I have all the updates. Thanks for clarifying that for everyone.

"Second problem i reported, about autorouter ignoring routable Copper Bottom in PCB properties. It seems that after transfering circuit from Multisim all nets are defaulted to be routed only on Copper Top, and changing setting in PCB properties do not affect this, as Copper Bottom is unchecked. So it can be resolved by manually rechecking all nets to Copper Bottom. It is rather inconvinience than error, still its tedious task, as i didnt found a way to change them all at once. After checking all nets autorouter is finally routing bottom as ordered."

This is a known issue that is being ironed out by NI, but there is a intermediate workaround that may help depending upon your version. If you have the Power Pro Edition you can look at the NETS tab and scroll to the right to where it says LOCK PCB SETTINGS and click on it and then click a box below that and select YES. Also in that same area there is a column called Routing Layer that you can select the particular routing layer for the nets. Using these in combination will allow transfers to Ultiboard without it defaulting to the copper top. This may be a little easier that manually adjusting them within Ultiboard. This may be available in other versions, but I am not sure.

So basically you have solved the  problem. It appears that this error will be eliminated if a person to updates to 10.0.1. Thanks for your assistance in this since it would never have malfunctioned in mine since I have all the updates.