Task 27: Applying Changes to the Strategy

In this task, you will apply changes to the strategy in order to completely route the design.

1. Load the design Routed_1.pdes. This design should be the same as the result obtained from the previous task.
2. Notice that this design is not completely routed. For example, there is still a connection under IC4.

Figure 1: Remaining connection under IC4

3. On the canvas, select the routing area routing_area1.
4. Select Net / Route > Autorouting > Autorouter on the eCADSTAR PCB Editor ribbon. The Routing Strategy dialog is displayed.
5. Load the strategy Unroute.rcc, or Mystrategy.rcc if you have generated this previously.
6. In the Routing Strategy, click Save As.
7. In the displayed Save Strategy File dialog, click the button twice and save the file as "routing_area1.rcc" in the following location: "\routed_1\routing_area1". This removes the need to load this strategy each time the autorouter is launched. If you are using a different routing area, then use that name. The next time that the autorouter is launched, this strategy is opened automatically.
8. In the Routing Strategy dialog, deselect the Use column for rows 3 and 4, as shown below.

Figure 2: Deactivating Tasks

9. In the Routing Strategy dialog, click Start to start the strategy.
10. In the Routing Strategy Progress dialog, the following information is displayed near the end of the report.

Figure 3: Hard Fail Notification

11. You will see that a hard fail for signal GND0V is being reported.  
12. A hard fail is when the autorouter is unable to complete the routing for a particular net for a reason that it cannot solve itself. For example, the track widths and spacings may be too large, or exits may be blocked by copper.
13. In this case, the hard fail exists because the autorouter settings do not allow vias under pads. You will correct this in the following steps.

12. Close the Routing Strategy Progress dialog.
13. To fix the reported hard fail, double-click in the Settings column for row 2 (Autoroute Power Nets).
14. In the Routing Setup dialog, select the Autorouting tab
15. In the Vias Under Single Layer Pads field, select Allow Breakout and click OK.

Figure 4: Vias Under Single Layer Pads

16. Re-run the strategy by clicking Start in the Routing Strategy dialog. You will see that the hard fail is not displayed..

Figure 5: No Hard Fails Displayed

17. Save the strategy, and accept the routing results. You will see that a via has been added under the GND pad on IC4.

Figure 6: Via Under Pad

18. Select routing_area1 again, and launch the autorouter.

19. Re-enable all tasks, and start the strategy. This will completely autoroute the design.
20. You may still get hard fails reported for the Refine Routing task, but these just mean that the routing could not be improved, when compared with the previous tasks.
21. If the Autoroute tasks report no hard fails or fails, then the design is successfully routed.

This procedure is demonstrated in the following video.