Здравствуйте, Станислав и Алексей.

В английской группе я отправлял неделю назад сообщение про интерфейс
с FreeRouting (см. ниже). Есть ли у Вас комментарии по этим моим
изысканиям? Я предпочитаю пользоваться автотрассировкой, однако
встроенный в DipTrace автотрассировщик не справляется со сколько-
нибудь нетривиальными платами. Был бы признателен за воплощение моего
предложения. Если это может помочь, вышлю исходный текст конвертора.
Вероятно, расширение "всеядности" интерфейса поможет программе
общаться и с другими автотрассировщиками (например, "Топором"
http://www.freestyleteam.com/)

С уважением,
Александр Корженевский

The DipTrace being almost perfect PCB design environment lacks
suitable autorouting solution. The http://freerouting.net provides
good gridless autorouter for free. Both DipTrace and FreeRouting
declare Specctra interface compliance, but unfortunately they speak
slightly different dialects and don't understand each other. By the
cut-and-try I have found the following.

Correct processing of the .dsn file generated by DipTrace in
FreeRouting requires changing of just one number in this
file: "(resolution mil 1)" into ... 100 (or more).

Importing of router results is more complicated.
1) The .ses file provided by FreeRouting has UNIX-like line ends
(LF), which are unacceptable by DipTrace expecting CRLF.
2) FreeRouting uses "net" keyword while DipTrace requires "Net"
(uppercase first letter).
3) FreeRouting places the parts of "wire" statements in separate
lines while DipTrace requires the "(wire (path Top" and at least
three first values combined in the single line.

As a temporary solution I have written command-line converter program
dp2fr2dp.exe, which makes necessary corrections both in .dsn
and .ses files. You can find it in the FreeRouting folder at the
Yahoo group:
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/diptr/files/FreeRouting/ . The
only command line parameter is the file name. If its extension
is .dsn, the file will be converted from DipTrace to FreeRouting and
FR_ prefix will be added. The .ses file will be converted backward
and DP_ prefix will be added. I have put also the FR_routed.dip file
as example of FreeRouting job. The initial file is from the DipTrace
installation: Examples\electra_unrouted.dip.

The statistics is impressive:
Electra routed: vias: 351, total wires length: 452225.
FreeRouting.net: vias: 214, total wires length: 382083.
But ... FreeRouting takes almost one hour to complete routing and
then you can infinitely run optimization passes. Electra routes this
board in seconds.

Certainly it will be beneficial to have direct integration of
DipTrace with FreeRouting, so I believe that many will support me in
asking developers to implement corresponding changes in the
DipTrace Specctra interface.