Difference Between Quick Route Airwire and Quick Route Signal?

[jm2morri]

Could someone explain the difference between these two quick route methods?  What help says isn't very helpful since both mention that you need an airwire and you can select existing wire, pad, or via.  Other than the route airwire not working with differential pairs I can't tell the difference.

In practice, I've seen situations where one will work and the other won't.  But that hasn't seemed to follow any pattern I can detect.

Quick Route Airwire (SET ROUTE_MODE QUICK_ROUTE_AIRWIRE)

In Quick Route Airwire mode, you select individual airwires that you wish to be automatically routed, and the ROUTE command instantly routes them. You can also select an existing wire, pad, or via in the design, and if the command can determine an unambiguous nearby airwire then it will route that.

Quick Route Signal (SET ROUTE_MODE QUICK_ROUTE_SIGNAL)

In Quick Route Signal mode, you select any signal object (airwire, wire, pad, or via), and the ROUTE command instantly routes all airwires that are members of that signal. When the signal that you have selected is one side of a differential pair, then the command automatically routes both differential pair signals together. If no airwires are found, then the ROUTE command displays an error message.

[jorge_garcia2 · Accepted solution]

Hi @jm2morri,

Thanks for all of your participation. The difference is best seen on a large net with a bunch of airwires. Let's assume for now you have a GND net with 50 airwires. If you use Quick Route Airwire, only the individual airwire you click on will be routed, the remaining 49 will remain unrouted. If you pick Quick Route Signal, then the quick route system will try to route all 50 airwires. In reality the Quick Route tools currently tap out at 16 airwires so you would have to run it multiple times to get them all but you get the idea.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

[jm2morri]

That makes sense.  Perhaps adding a bit of that to the help file would be useful.

Thanks a million,

James.