COPPER BOTTOM LAYER PROBLEM

[jorgealexvilla]

Hi,

I'm having problems using Ultiroute 10 when i try to autoroute in a single layer board, the routed lines doesn't appear, just the holes but not the lines, the most weird is that in the 3D view the lines are there. I've lost a lot of time trying to find out the solution but....

Thanks

[lacy]

This sounds like maybe you have the layer in the project view disabled (this only inhibits you from viewing that layers copper traces). You can check this to make sure there is a check in the box next to it.

It might help if you would be willing to post your project file so we can examine it. This way we can be on the same page when it comes to anaylyzing it and comming up with a solution.

[jorgealexvilla]

Here is the proyect, the copper bottom layer was already checked...

[lacy]

I think I am going to let someone else tackle this. It seems to me that there are a bunch of issues with Ultiboard that NI needs to fix. This is probably one of those. You are lucky in some respects because I can't get it to route a single sided board. The design that I plugged into it I know is a single-sided board (I usually use a known board design that I am familiar with in order to test the software functions) but the autorouter just gives up and does no routing at all. The thing is that I can manually route this same board using the follow -me option. So if I can do it manually then it should be a breeze for the autorouter.

Have a Nice Day

[nestor-sg]

Hi all,

I was looking at your design and I was able to autoroute it if it has two layers... Copper Top and Copper Bottom. Delete your board outline, then use the Board wizard to create a new board outline & layer technology... choose double-sided.... you will have two layers right?... make the Copper Top layer 'not routable' from the spreadsheet view. Then autoroute. It will autoroute in the Copper Bottom only.

I will check with R&D why the single-sided is not autorouting... it is indeed autorouting but in the copper top, which is in this case inexistent and that is why you can't see the copper.

[lacy]

Nestor, I tried the double-sided board single-side route on my design and it only came up with only a partial solution. The thing is that most of the connections were in my opinion simple and I could route them manually. I will post my file for you to look at and see if maybe there is something I am doing wrong. I used the default board outline and manually placed all the componetsand nets based on the board I was working from

Here's the file:

.

[lacy]

Nestor, I amalso going to post the single-sided board project file that would npt autorout at all for you to take a look at. I tried using autoplace in this file just in case that had any bearing on the autoroute issue. It didn't it was only able to route 2 of 66 connections. Anyway, you can look at it and see what you can come up with because at this point I really have know idea what is happening.

Thanks very much.

Here it is:

Message Edited by lacy on 08-01-2007 11:08 AM

[nestor-sg]

Lacy, I will check your files later this afternoon...

Jorge, I spent some time with the problem you just reported, use the workaround I posted previously that will allow you to route your board and continue with your project. I checked this issue and back in version 9 it is working fine, single sided board autorouting, in v10 the autorouter is getting confused on which layer to route since its forcing it to copper top, but there is only copper bottom, I already spoke to R&d and this will be consider high priority.

[lacy]

Thank you Nestor and I await the results of your analysis. Just for the heck of it I tried an experiment using your suggestion. I tried the bottom layer route using your technique with no luck so I went back and tried it with the top layer as the only active layer. It routed it perfectly with all connections made. So whatever is happening it would appear that  it is isolated to how Ultiboard is treating the bottom layer as you pointed out.

This could also be why the autorouter has problems on occasion not making it to 100%. I forgot who posted their file, but someones file here on the forum never made it to 100% and I let it run for over 30 minutes and it never made it beyond 75% completion.  It wasn't that big of a project either.

Anyway, these are my observations and I will let you do your analysis and wait for your advice.

Thanks very, very much.

[jorgealexvilla]

Thank's Nestor, i did what you told me and it worked.