Need some eyes on this routing problem

[kittmaster]

I've made many of these components and they always work as they should. For some reason on multiple projects, my RJ45 connector that I created will NOT route pin 5. I can not figure it out for the life of me. I've tried a 1 mil trace, 5, 10......nothing

If I view clearances, there is nothing in the way or out of bounds to route to the pin.

I've attached a file I'm currently working on, I've tried to remodify the pins and set clearances to 1 mil. This should allow it but doesn't.

It for me gets to 111 of 113 trace routes. Never finishes. If I manually place a trace (its a ground) from pin 5 manually to another ground of another IC, and reroute.....bingo 100%.

Every design, every time I use this connector. I've changet the pin from bidirectional to GND, still no go.....can anyone see what it is that I'm missing here?

Does it happen when you route it there?

errrrrrr.

[M.I.]

Hi Chris,

I tried one thing and it seemed to route at 100% for me. Go into the Autorouter options (Autoroute>>Autoroute/place Options) and in the General tab change your routing mode from Gridbased to Progressive and then give it a shot.

Let me know if that works for you.

[kittmaster]

Switching it to progressive does allow it to route to 100%......now for the million dollar question......WHY?

If my board needs 25 mil grid snap spacing by design constraints (bed of nails lets say), then why would I want a progressive grid from gridbased to gridless.......that would violate my grid constraints....

What is so unique about that pin vs the other pins?

Easy workaround (already solved by manual trace).....but this shouldn't be a required step to get a board to 100%.....would you agree?

Thank you for the help.....:)

Chris

[M.I.]

I agree with you on that one. I've actually entered a defect for one of the developers to look into. I'm not too sure whats so special about that pin.

Hopefully I'll be able to get an answer to you soon.

[lacy]

Hi, Chris

I don't know if this has any bearing on the problem or not. I tried your file and I got it to route 100% by changing the GND Net from 20 mils down to 14 mils. It may be having a hard time routing at 20 mils because of your clearance settings on the autorouter set-up.

This is just my theory. Maybe what I have found here will help you see something that you were missing before (at least that is the hope)

Message Edited by lacy on 01-14-2008 06:12 PM

[kittmaster]

That size is a bit small for this application. The progressive setting does allow the routing as mentioned above. I'll try your setting as well to see. This is such a weird issue. Not sure what to make of it.

UPDATE:

Yep, 15 doesn't work, but 14 does in this case, I've seen where I've used smaller values....no go....well this workaround will not be right because the trace is jus to small. I manually routed it, and have a 100% board. Hopefully this issue will be resolved in the next version.......just wish I knew what the issue was......and/or.....is!

Message Edited by kittmaster on 01-14-2008 07:47 PM

[lacy]

Well, it was worth a shot anyway. This is a strange problem. I seem to remember running into this once before and really didn't think much about it. My board traces were not critical and I just changed the trace width or moved the parts around until it did route. We'll just have to wait and see what NI thinks about it.