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1. Group objects for Locking relative to each other, move one = move them all. Not locking to PCB dimension only. Lock-groups.
2. Tag certain traces, for possibly changing them globally. Traces have net names, but should also have other parameters, like 50 Ohm transmission lines. Then one can select all “50 Ohm” traces and change their width, when using a different PCB material.
3. These traces could be given a different color, in PCB and in Schematic. Current color choices are a bit sparse.
4. The program should also be able to calculate various 50 Ohm line widths, from standard formuals given dielectric constant (Dk) and insulation thickness, for stripline, microstrip, CPW and CPW-G, etc.
http://www.mantaro.com/resources/impedance-calculator.htm has formulas, among others.
5. Changing a track width should be possible from pad to pad, via to via, not just a section of the trace. IF the program knows how to rip up and entire net with a couple of clicks, why not also be able to change width with the same ease?
6. Mitered corners, now is clunky, using polygons and SMDs, but possible, generates massive errors. Suppressing error types for a Mitered corner made with (small) polygons may be enough. (I make mitered corners as a “part” with two small SMD pads for attachment and the rest from polygon lines).
7. Zero 0 width for polygons is a choice, but the CAM program will choke on this. Thus remove that choice for polygons.
8. Put a “faint/ghost” circle around via’s, and traces, to show their keep-out distance to other objects, from DRC rules.
9. Routing a trace, picking up from an old trace, and use “shift” key to get the same width, also include the other properties, like wire bend style.
10. If one wants to add a component in a trace, viewed from BRD, it is very clunky. Adding a “cut” in a trace should be possible, with renaming nets on either side of the “cut”. Then a component can be added in-line with a trace. The same should then be dropped into schematic.
11. Make ESC key to get out of any command applied to mouse click.
12. Make holes and vias lockable.
13. DRC error reporting should be limited to ONE error per component/feature. Say one gets an error from a silkscreen text overlapping some pads, If I move that ONE text away from pads, that should be ONE error, not 36 or so.
14. When moving a trace make click sound when it hits 45 degrees, another sound when it hits zero and 90.
15. “Add component” in Board, could be suppressed, its for schematic only. No need to add pop- up, a click sound would be OK.
16. Copy features in Board, if not possible, pop-up box should be eliminated. Box has to be cleared out, annoying and time consuming. (“Can’t copy text”, OK once is enough)
17. In command line entry field, if there is a command error, squiggly underline the error, not remove all the stuff typed in, retyping is a pain.
18. Make track length calculator also from pad to pad, or via, not just a section.
19. Rip-up a trace should be possible with more precision, now it easily removes the entire “net-name”, where it may only need to remove a section. Perhaps only rip-up what is exposed on the screen, or up to the next via. No pop-up here when a hole net disappears. If one rips up a trace that at some point overlaps another trace, the program starts ripping the “wrong” trace. The program should be smarter. If I rip one trace section by section, it would be logical to continue this track. Before a complete rip-up another key press should be added, like CTRL + click.
20. If a yellow X appears on two crossing lines, there is no single command to interconnect them.
21. The yellow X is so strong it hides whats underneath. Can the X be placed in the bottom of the stack?
22. Please disable automatic turn-on of layers, please. I work one layer at a time, but keeping the others in view, interaction may not be needed. Turning off a layer means I do not want to see it, or work on it. I will turn it on if I need it. Add a setting for this.
23. The program has a tendency when routing, to snap to adjacent pads in “other layer” when routing under them. Annoying and time consuming.
24. Finding a component in board or schematic should zoom into it, if needed, highlight and blink it. Now it gives a pop-up and zooms out! Annoying and hard to use. ERC works 98% with the black Box and Line, it does not center most of the time, but well changes zoom level, AND centers to the wrong spot!
25. If using “show” to highlight a trace in schematic, and then switch to Board, it should centered and zoomed-in, if needed, or use existing zoom level. The same should be possible from Board to Schematic.
26. The bottom notification text (with the diamond), make it movable, so I can set it to the top.
27. To Copy from one Sheet to the next now, involves using a Group when selecting a component, annoying.
28. Add a “BACK” button to previous view. Especially annoying in Library when switching between Device, Package, and Symbol. As every Part has these, switching between them should be fast and easy. Now the fastest way to go from Package view to Device view is to go to Schematic, click on Part, right click on drop down and select Open Device. The existing drop down in Package gives me ALL the Symbols and ALL the Devices, which may be a very long list, thus pretty useless, and annoying.
29. GUI interface buttons are fixed size. Make three (3) sizes available. The “new” style is not that good. (Win10 is not a good model for GUI, low contrast, weak colors, etc)
30. Add a feature in Board, where like in schematic, one can add a “Junction” and delete the rest of the Net on one side of it, like being able to change net-names on sections after adding “junctions” or breaks.
31. Find-ing small missing “air wires” can be hard, make the Find-able, and/or make the “sizable”. “Air-wire” thickness should have a setting.
32. Trapezoidal or tapered lines are needed at times, make it easy.
33. If one makes a Copy of a Group of ground vias, they will be given a new net name (why?), annoying, and they have to be renamed to their original net. Again, and again.
34. Delete function in Board gives a pop-up error, thats has to be clicked out, annoying. A sound would be faster. (Make it possible to add change sound effects, for various actions)
35. Make it easy to have groups of Layers, so one can turn off groups of Layers. You would want a Top side group, a Bottom side group, etc, as an alternative.
36. I’m not sure the GO and STOP command buttons are needed. Some old legacy thing for slow PC’s? Make them optional.
37. SMD’s and Polygon’s can have Roundness why not Rectangles?
38. If one could put a “break” or “junction” in a track/trace, and then rename the split traces I could add a component in the break. If I break a “wire” in the schematic with two Junctions, cut the space in between, the program assigns a new number to the net (N$….) , why not just keep the name, with a dot added?
39. DRC should have an assignable Function key assigned, for a quick check, (NUMPAD, only, should be a choice.) without the Rules pop-up window.
40. in Settings > Misc > “Display Drills” actually means “Display Holes in Board”. It does not mean Display drill choices. Change it.
41. Add an easy way to change lineup of default Trace widths, Drills, Pad shapes. All the defaults are wrong for me. (A change in the startup script allows changing only the default width.)
42. Ratsnest yellow line (Unrouted) allows only for adding a new trace to its end points, typically the closest route. Make it possible to set the starting point to any part of the net it is on. This will allow the reuse of old traces, without the need to remove them, or add a fake trace to get the “air-wire” line where I need it.
43. Selecting a trace to be ripped can be difficult when you have three layers or more active. Turning layers on/off is slow and it would be better if the program rotated between close selections rather than trying to grab the closest to the mouse pointer. Layers should be possible to have Active and visible and also Visible and not active.
44. If one clicks on a part to get “Info”, and click on the next part for “Info”, it won’t work until one closes the pop-up window. Slow. Why not add a setting for this?
45. Some traces need to be free of solder-mask, add an option to put a “Stop” feature on a trace. (the use of the word “stop” may have historic significance in this context, but a better word could be used, the word has a very deep classic meaning. One would guess that the word “unmasked” could work better.)
46. Click-and drag in “Move” selecting should work as “Group”. Click-and-drag (Mouse left) should enable “move” function. (mouse gesture?)
47. Add more assignable mouse functions, for 5 button mouse.
48. Pin-swapping a 2-terminal Part should require only ONE click, not two.
49. Function “Lock”: there is no button to “Unlock”, (which should be “group-able” as well)
50. There should be a button for aligning/snapping traces horizontal, vertical, and 45 degrees
51. When selecting a “group” to “move”, there should be a single keyboard button, or middle mouse, to use to grab selection where I have the cursor positioned. Not right-click, scroll down, select move: group, press mouse left. Using the mouse to select from a drop-down menu is not ideal. There should be an “Action” button.
52. GUI Grid display should have its own handle, independent from others. Allowing the GUI buttons to be shuffled/repositioned and customized would help.
53. Real constant impedance miter joints should be possible, input the Dk and insulation thickness (from Rules) and the program should calculate how much to chop off a corner, and apply it.
54. A footprint (Package) with two overlapping pads (SMD), on the same net, will not automatically inter-connect, requiring a track to be made. Not good.
55. The Icon for wire-bend style-2 is at an angle, where the trace is actually straight.
56. If one clicks an “air-wire” on a pad, where there are two “air-wires” crossing it, the program may well decide to start the track somewhere outside the screen, not next to the pad where the cursor is. Not good. Tracks should only be initiated at a start/end point. Actions outside what is on the screen can’t be good.
57. There is no quick way to turn off polygon fill. Opening and closing the .BRD file is the fastest, but all the wrong defaults are then applied. Not even “Ratsnest processes polygons” of turns off polygons, even on a new Ratsnest command, which is the least that it should do. Better yet a button to turn off polygons.
58. Partial polygon calculation should be possible, affecting only an an screen area, or a changed area.
59. The translucency of polygon fills are not adjustable, “Fillstyles” add to much irritation to the eye. Moreover, those four lower fillstyle choices look identical to each other in the menu. (I’m guessing the “Fillstyles” is a legacy item from the time where hardware acceleration was scarce. It could probably be removed. Look at the “Gerbv” program for ideas about adjustable alpha. ) The checkbox for alpha blending has no sliders, needed for each layer.
60. Wire bend style Icons make no sense. The start point of the bend needs to be indicated in the icons.
61. The word “Technology” is used for package style. Who would have guessed? Click “Technology” and you get to “Packages”. Why not just call it Package Styles? (Greyed out if there are no alternatives.)
62. When going thru the DRC list and clearing out errors, those errors do not get checked off until you run another DRC. Either let there be a mark on that list, or dynamically clear errors with DRC in that region, or re-run the DRC in the affected region.
63. In the DRC list, put Overlap at the top, as this is the most serious error.
64. Include a time counter how long time the program is being actively used, say allow a pause of 5 minutes (settable) after the last action before the timer stops. It would be helpful to the bean counters.
65. In DRC error list, multiple errors cannot be selected to Approve, like typically with Ctrl and Shift.
66. Add a script or function to place multiple ground vias, over an area, in a grid pattern, (size, pattern spacing) that will later be removed with a DRC action where they overlap.
67. Via sizes, drill and pad diameter, could/should be linked to trace width, each trace width should have a default (my choice) of associated via size.
68. Auto set junction (with shift key) does not specify what layers are to be used, (when you have a complicated setup for blind vias. Using the shift key on a trace does place a via, but the trace continues on the same layer, why? The via is used to change to another layer, logically it should switch to another, most probable, like if the end point for the Unrouted line is at a another via, that would be prime, or else bring up a box for choices. Some use one layer for horizontal traces and others for vertical, so if the mouse moves up, switch to that layer, if the mouse goes horizontal switch to that layer.
69. CAM processor is not multi-threaded, thus a slow legacy product.
70. Placing ground vias should be possible with a single click, with the correct net name (for ground).
71. Copy ground vias from one network to another ground net, is possible, BUT you cannot rename the copied vias, “ERROR Cannot back annotate, must be done in Schematic”. Which is not possible.
72. If one places a part on a ground plane, where one terminal is ground, the polygon fill will automatically connect the part, which is good, however if a terminal is placed on a trace of the same and correct net-name, the automatic connection does not spring into action.
73. A measurement tool would be nice, quite common as well.
74. The default result for laying out components, creating a new blank layout, should be (a check-box for this) should be like the schematic. Not some numerical spread-sheet order, this is less than useless.
75. The “optimize” button seems to have no function in Board, like it does is Schematic. Why not use it to remove unnecessary points(?) like when you stop a trace and then continue it. (no not that “Stop” = “Unmask”).
76. If the same question is asked on various forums, about this program, again and again, over the years, by several people, with issues they have using the program, and the answer is always the same, maybe the program is not as intuitive as it could be? Maybe “Delete” should work on vias instead of, or addition to, Ripup? The German mentality of inflexibility and “do it my vey”. The program has large user base where much input has been donated by the community, installs and runs on several operating systems etc, was reasonably priced, and could continue to improve. There are other programs, like Altium with massively more features, probably others, I’ve seen and tried a few, so I know what is possible. I’m only asking for what I think are common sense improvements, that would keep the program mostly the way it is, with options to change it. Setting default startup trace widths and drills, et cetera, should be easy, piling thru manual and forums should not be needed.
Solved! Go to Solution.
