How do I restart the autorouter?

[jakob]

Hi, its the first time I use Freerouting (1.9.0)
(I started it via the KiCad GUI Icon) Looking in the DRC I see constraints errors.
After changing the value which forced the error I tried to run the Freerouting again ( by clicking at the GUI Icon)
Problem: I do not see any changes. Freerouting runs a few seconds and exits without a error message.
Q: What is the correct workflow?
Thanks Jakob

Application: KiCad PCB Editor x64 on x64

Version: 7.0.9-109-g0d330051ed, release build

Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.2.4
FreeType 2.12.1
HarfBuzz 8.2.1
FontConfig 2.14.2
libcurl/8.4.0-DEV Schannel zlib/1.3

Platform: Windows 10 (build 19045), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW

Build Info:
Date: Dec 11 2023 04:13:46
wxWidgets: 3.2.4 (wchar_t,wx containers)
Boost: 1.83.0
OCC: 7.7.1
Curl: 8.4.0-DEV
ngspice: 41
Compiler: Visual C++ 1936 without C++ ABI

Build settings:
KICAD_SPICE=ON

[jmk]

Sorry @jakob

Freerouting is not part of Kicad. You will have to post your problems on the Treerouting site.

[bobc]

@jakob

Problem: I do not see any changes. Freerouting runs a few seconds and exits without a error message.
Q: What is the correct workflow?

I find the Freerouter GUI rather weird, and non-standard. It takes an unnecessary amount of clicks to reload a DSN file.

So here is what I do to re-run:

1. Close the Freerouting Board Layout window
2. Close the nuisance exit dialog box
3. In Kicad, export the DSN
4. In the Freerouting launcher window, click “Select the design file”
5. Select the DSN file again
6. Click “Start auto-router”

You are now back in the Freerouter Board Layout window, and can click “Start auto-router”.

[retiredfeline]

To elaborate on jmk’s reply, Freerouting is an external program, which is interfaced to KiCad via a plugin which attempts to make it a one-click operation but can go wrong. You’d have to figure out how Freerouting is being invoked to work out what went wrong. Perhaps it left behind a log file showing what it did. Take the evidence to the Freerouting github page.

You can always invoke Freerouting on its own after exporting the DSN file, then import the SES file it generates. I bypass the file chooser by providing the input file and other program options on the command line, something easy to do with a Linux shell script.