PCB autorouting
At a glance
- Route a whole board, only unrouted connections, selected nets or a functional group
- Critical nets go first and supported differential pairs route as coupled tasks
- Manual and locked copper stays fixed through negotiated rip-up and reroute
- Every pass is an inspectable candidate with unresolved connections, DRC findings and quality metrics
- Partial, impossible and cancelled runs remain honest and never become a completed board
Open Check → Autoroute PCB… from Board Layout. The PCB Autorouter runs locally in JetCad3's native geometry engine. It does not upload the board or require another PCB application.
Setup uses the document's length units. Advanced settings hold the search-node limit and seed. Inspect, Route Board, Cancel Routing and Close stay visible below the scrolling content.
Choose the scope
Route the whole board, only currently unrouted connections, a selected set of nets or a functional group. Explicit pass, node and time limits keep each run bounded. Critical-net constraints and allowed layers feed the scheduler; supported differential pairs stay coupled. Existing manual and locked traces and vias are obstacles the router must preserve.
Review the candidate
A run can be complete, partial, infeasible, failed or cancelled. Candidate rows show connected and unresolved work, hard findings, total length, vias, bends, congestion and a bounded routing log. Compare candidates visually and by those measurements, then explicitly apply one current candidate.
Applying reruns physical connectivity and DRC against the current board. An edit, undo, redo, project replacement or newer run makes an older candidate stale.
Copper-zone definitions stay intact, including when you delete an imported board's routes to try the autorouter. Routing checks pads, traces and vias while deferring zone fills; an unfilled or stale zone does not prevent a run. After applying a candidate, Refill zones, then run PCB Design Rules Check. A routed candidate with pending fills is not a fabrication clearance.
Engineering limits
The router is built for general rigid 2/4/6/8-layer boards, common fine-pitch parts, planes, differential pairs and length constraints. Blind/buried/microvias, rigid-flex, dedicated dense BGA escape and field-solver RF or signal-integrity analysis are outside this release.
The acceptance corpus includes complete, partial and impossible boards. Passing that corpus is evidence for those cases, not a promise that every board topology will route automatically. Review placement, return paths, manufacturability and every unresolved item before fabrication.