Hi,
I came across Ringdove EDA which is free and has a router. The router takes a file format I’d never heard of tEDAx route-rnd - main. It was mentioned in 2017 on here but nothing since.
Yet again I am thinking about trying to get the Windows version to build so I can do some software mods and though an exporter might be a good place to start.
Has anyone else has ago?
I had started considering the router from PCB but that is out of development. PCB but again source is available.
Periodically (once a year or so), I reach out to the developer of pcb-rnd to see if they want to discuss ways of working together. The answer so far has been in the negative but I’ll keep checking.
There is a lot of good ideas in pcb-rnd, particularly in their io code. But it is straight C, so would need a re-imagining if we want to utilize parts for KiCad
Hi
I’m not talking about using their code in the first instance but producing an export utility for KiCad to allow export into a format their router can use.
If I was going to port a router then it would be the one from Topographical router from PCB.
I would be using the creation of tEDAx exporter as a tool learn about KiCADS workings and perhaps make it easier for me to construct the import for a standalone router.
pcb-rnd should read KiCad files directly. That should output into router-rnd
If you want to rewrite pcb-rnd be my guest, it is not what I’m planning to do.
KiCad generally does not add exporters for specific third-party tools, only for formats that are either neutral standard formats, or are commonly used as interchange formats by multiple other third-party software packages. So, it is unlikely that an exporter for pcb-rnd would be added as part of KiCad itself.
Well if you decide not to include it then your decision, you cannot stop me adding to my build.
I don’t believe anyone wants to stop you.
KiCad is an open-source project. Anyone is welcome to build plug-ins for it, write importers or exporters for it, or even clone it and change it for non-commercial purposes.
Why not modify tEDA to import DSN instead?
You are welcome to do that, but I’m not sure what that would teach me about how KiCAD works, which if you had read the thread you would have realised was my main objective.
Sorry I thought you wanted to add another choice of router to KiCad. Enjoy your software development then.