Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!van-bc!
From: lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Board Master, anyone?
Message-ID: <1806@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca>
Date: 20 Jul 90 13:48:57 GMT
Lines: 50
Return-Path: <lpami!lphillips>
To: van-bc!rnews

In <2609@corpane.UUCP>, sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) writes:
>lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) writes:
>
>
>>I have designed several boards with PCLO, despite the limitations. As you say,
>>it is not up to the standards of some of the professional (and professionally
>>priced) products for the IBM and clones, but bears looking at, limitations and
>>all.
>
>Er, wasn't PCLO priced around $1,000? Sounds pretty 'professionally priced'
>itself, eh? I looked at it long ago but didn't want to spend that much, and
>not even have auto-routing. Or I guess I should say 'smart' auto-routing.
>I seem to recall that PCLO would draw the trace when you clicked on two
>end pads, and it would draw the shortest line between the pads, moving around
>any other pads and traces. But that was about all it did. And after running
>about ten or so traces you would find that you had a few pads that you couldn't
>get to and had to re-run some of the previous traces again. (I played with the
>demo version [save disabled] that went around several years ago)
>
>It seemed fun and useful for smaller projects, but not $1000 fun.
>Maybe $100-$125

It started out as a $1000 package. When PCLO+ arrived, it was priced lower, and
PCLO took a corresponding price decrease. I can't remember what I paid for it,
but it was certainly a small fraction of $1000. BoardMaster, the current
incarnation of PCLO+ is priced, I think, at about $100.

Laying down traces without getting yourself 'etched into a corner' took a
little doing. Knowing the idiosyncracies of the program helped a lot. A trace
would take a slightly different route when you routed it in the opposite
direction. You could also use a few techniques, like routing through an
intermediate point, or putting in temporary elements to force a route to take a
longer path, leaving you room for the problem traces.

I haven't played with BoardMaster, but it now has a full ARexx interface,
allowing you yo 'read' the layout and to lay down circuit elements via ARexx
script.

It was indeed fun for me. I did a complete A1000 2 meg memory board with it
(yes, I consider that a small project).

-larry

--
The raytracer of justice recurses slowly, but it renders exceedingly fine.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ 
|   //   Larry Phillips                                                 |
| \X/    lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca -or- uunet!van-bc!lpami!lphillips |
|        COMPUSERVE: 76703,4322  -or-  76703.4322@compuserve.com        |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+