Hi Everyone,
I've been using Diptrace for a long time now, and I've had my ups and downs with the software, but pound for pound it can match anything on the market. Really, to date I haven't found anything that even comes close to the ease of use and feature set that this program offers.
However, I've never liked to use the Auto-placement or Auto router because I think (personal opinion) they are both quite useless and if anything, take away from a great program. They seem to pick the first viable route or valid placement and stick with them.
So, in my travels to try and find something better, I came across Topor Lite. I played with it for a while and its not bad, but as usual, its extremely difficult to really work with and while it can find valid placements, its painful to use.
But a few days ago, I found this http://www.freerouting.net/

It is simply the BEST auto-router I've found ! It will sit there and run for as long as you want it to, and for a change I can actually get some high quality valid routing from there with only minimal edits, but best of all, its DEAD simple to use and really opens up the power of Diptrace!

So, just thought I'd share that in case anyone else suffers frustrations with Diptraces Auto-router (for those that actually use it anyway)! Now, if only I could find a Auto Placement tool!

Thanks, will take a look at this. I've also been frustrated with auto placement and auto router. I have NEVER gotten auto placement to find a valid solution, when it's easy to place everything myself... Autorouter will usually work, but will make traces unnecessarily long and it's not efficient.

I just downloaded TopoR Lite to give it a shot. I found it relatively easy to use, the only exception on Windows it freezes and crashes constantly. I could import my file from Diptrace without issue. But when trying to import the SES file back into Diptrace, I select the file, click OK and nothing happens?? I can't figure out why it's not importing anything.

-- 23 Jul 2012, 02:16 --

I don't think I like the free routing app. VERY slow and doesn't seem to ever finish (on more complex designs). The fact that it's Java/web-based doesn't help anything.

Topor is garbage, No matter what type of machine I use, it just crashes ALL the time and there's no support or help for it.

So far I prefer TopoR. It does crash, but I've gotten successful routes and exports out of it, which has not been the case with the free router. Granted, there is no way I'd shell out $6k for it with that kind of instability. Now if I could only get that SES file to actually import correctly into Diptrace...

You aren't the only one, I can't get Topor to import either.
I wouldn't buy it. I think considering all it does is routing, its just way overpriced (personal opinion). I understand the author needs to make a return on their time invested, but for a hobbyist that makes boards for open source and stuff for friends, its way out of my price range. It's probably aimed more at the commercial enterprise market who make huge complex boards. I think it also performs more like a beta product than a final product, and the user community consists of 6 people who all made 1 post and never came back. So I can't really see it getting many sales. But because of the price and limitations, nobody can really test it. Personally if I was the author I would aim it at a more realistic market.

I still haven't even bought Diptrace yet... I feel kind of guilty about it, until I use the auto-placement or auto-router or my locked components get removed when I update the PCB from the schematic. Then I get frustrated to the point where I try and find better software which is how I found the freerouting site in the first place. I always come back to Diptrace though because its so easy to use and the community is wonderful. I don't think its the best out there, but I think its the best value for money, and its definitely one of the easiest to get into.

I'll probably buy it when they sort out the bugs that irritate me the most. Bug fix updates take way too long, and they seem to put priority of new features over fixes. Also bugs that are there often stay between versions which can be frustrating.

If you have any issues with Topor you can contact to www.eremex.com and get technical support there.