Your problems with the interactive router?

I’m really sorry if you feel that way, because that’s definitely not how it was intended. I started this because I wanted to try to find something which can be refined to concrete suggestions for improvement. As I have told in the issue referenced in the first post, the behavior of the router is so complex that it’s difficult to tell what it actually does, and maybe even more difficult to put into words how it should behave in a user’s opinion to make it easier to use.

I don’t think any one in this thread or the issue has any misunderstandings about easiness or difficulties of the implementation. But without open communication we can’t know what the developers think and what they have planned or not planned.

I, too, have miserably failed to explicitly tell how much I admire the router even in it’s current condition, even if I have thought about it silently. Instinctively I would believe it’s the most complicated and difficult piece of KiCad to code. It also has the widest gap between what the user sees and experiences and how it is actually implemented.

It’s also one of the most crucial pieces because it’s the major part of everyday work, something which has to be used for a relatively long time for each design whether the user is a beginner or an expert and no matter what kind of design it is.

Therefore I feel this thread is justified.

EDIT: I’ll change the title soon because it may give a bad impression about the intention.
Second edit: maybe it’s now a bit more neutral.

1 Like

To me, it’s around 75% time PCB, 20% schematic and 5% other (library handling included). Other Opensource EDA packages do focus on library handling, but it’s not THAT crucial as effective layout job.

@eelik how about changing the title to: “What would you like to improve to the interactive router”, so it will sound more positively?

Another weird issue related to track placement (But not really the interactive router) in KiCad V5.99.
Almost none of the 45 degree tracks can be dragged.
(I hit [Esc] to abort @ 0:09)

[Edit] Yay, uploading in .mp4 format works :slight_smile:
[Edit Edit] This seems indeed the same #6614 that Fred found on gitlab (I had not checked there yet)

Note: the interactive router is also responsible for dragging tracks, not just for routing new ones (despite the name)

@paulvdh is it another instance of: https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/issues/6644 ?

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.