The Hard Lessons of PCB Auto-Routing: Part 2 of Seve's List

Seve's original postPart 1 episodeThis episode continues where the last one left off, diving into Part 2 of Seve's blog post “13 Things I Wish I Knew Before Building an Autorouter.” 🧠⚡ Seve (founder of tscircuit) and Matt (founder of atopile) explore the deep technical challenges of auto-routing printed circuit boards using code, compiler toolchains, and caching, rather than traditional schematics-based tools.In this second half, they unpack:* Why caching is crucial for speeding up PCB auto-routing* Visualization as a debugging superpower* The power of PyInstrument and visual profiling tools* Why recursive functions and Monte Carlo methods often fail in optimization* Game dev tricks (like greedy A*) adapted for PCB pathfinding* The difference between grid-based vs intersection-based routing math* Why keeping results grounded in physical space (like millimeters) makes debugging easier* Using animation to catch stupid behavior before it goes live* How a meta-router manages multiple strategies in parallel* Insights from CNC machines and high-fidelity spatial modelingThis episode is packed with Seve and Matt's hands-on experiences, hard-won insights, and sharp advice for anyone building or using modern, code-first electronics design tools.🛠 Whether you're a PCB engineer, systems architect, or startup founder in the hardware space, this conversation is pure gold. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit electronics.dev

There are no comments yet.

Please log in to write the first comment.