[SOLVED] FreeRouter and PCBNew: how to forbid to route a specific route?

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I would need to impose to FreeRouter, do not route a specific route. For instance the GND, because I normally substitute it with ground-planes, by placing zones.

Is that possible?
In which way please?

2

FreeRouter is at best a marginal topic for this forum.

If free router handles multi board stack up at least the ground zone could be relegated to a temporary layer and that might help. ā€˜That place in Chinaā€™ now seems to be offering the same price on 4 layers as 2 anyhow.

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yes I know FreeRouter is marginal here. I have not clue where to write to ask for help since on FreeRouter space perhaps they tell ā€œKiCAD is marginal hereā€.

I just ask for a help to understand how to achieve this, also the solution you proposed. I have not clue how to put in practice. how to setup KiCAD to tell to FreeRouter ā€œthis should be on another layerā€.

P.S. no, ā€œthat place in Chinaā€ offers 4 layers at the double of 2 layers. Read the specs :wink:

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I checked, and you can get certain size for the same prize.

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Ok because from the home page is clear that at 2USD, the size of the 4 layers is the half.

However, I stay with my not-knowledge on how to impose to FreeRouter do not route certain routes :-/

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Thatā€™s the problem. There is no FreeRouter space. There are some people that updated it to the current Java and made a few improvements on the UI, but from what I can tell, there is no real work being done on it. Iā€™m not sure they could even tell you what a resistor is. When the old Java was about to go extinct some well meaning individuals went around updating old abandonware. It was more Java evangelism than anything else.

If FreeRouter was being actively developed it would be another story.

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uhi I was not aware about this story :frowning:
It makes me also concerned about autoroutes since I donā€™t have anything else.

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You should see Freerouting not as a tool for autorouting, but as a tool for assisted routing.

I sometimes use Freerouting for four layer designs (signal-GND-3V3-signal). But just sometimes, because for four layer designs the routing is usually not too difficult, even for me :wink:

First I route everything I want to have in a certain way regarding power losses, EMC, trace length, differential pairs, etc., including the Vias for GND and VCC resp. 3V3. Then I export the half finished PCB to Freerouting for routing the remaining traces and re-import the result. In the last step I repair the quirks (90 degrees angles in traces etc.) produced by Freerouting by hand.

That works fine for me and gives better results than doing everything by myself or let doing everything by Freerouting.

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Itā€™s the way i work as well. but on GND I want to avoid any routing rather than to place a zone after have finished.

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FOUND THE WAY!

i hope it will be useful to other ones that they donā€™t know and they donā€™t find answers/helps about.

First and foremost:
when you placed the component, just route the Zone by: Place > Add Filled-Zone (or CTRL+SHIFT+Z)
Donā€™t route anything else than the full zone

YES it covers the whole PCB. No worries.

  • Save and export the DSN
  • Open FreeRouter and Import the DSN as it is, and start the autorouter.
  • Once finished, export the SES
  • Import the SES on PCBNew. Yes I know, the routs are OVER the filled zone. No worries.
  • Press the letter B on your keyboard, the PCB refills, and the magic occurs.

Thatā€™s it.

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