Copper Sharing & Length Minimization

[Bodhran1]

Can anyone tell me what effect "Copper Sharing" has on "Length Minimization"?

I have one net (5V) that won't minimize. I've checked all it's rules against other power, gnd and signal nets and "Sharing" is the only difference I can find.

Help menus offer no explaination on the subject.


TIA

Dave

[Tom]

Dave,

You might have a Rule Assigned to 5V.

Go to Setup/Design Rules
Select NET
Select Show Nets With Rules
See if the net 5V has a Routing Rule
If so, Select the Routing Button
See what box is checked for Length Minimization

[Bodhran1]

Rules for that net are set to min total length.

Another observation:

If I move any component tied to 5V and then run a trace to it, the rest of the net will reconnect itself, but not nessasarily the minimum length as I have selected.

Must be a bug..I mean feature.

[Tom]

What version are you running? V4 or V5?

I've never seen this with V4 and V5 is new so you may have discovered something. It's always good to post what version you're running so we all know how to respond better.

[Bodhran1]

Tom,

We are running version 3.6 actually (yah, I know, I know)

V4 had more bugs than enhancments, so we decided not to load it ( a decision I still stand by!)

V5 sounds better, but we are watching comments on the forum closely.

We've just got our CD's in last week and will load it as soon as the work load allows.


Dave

[Tom]

Dave,

A couple of things:

1. Wait for the Version 5.0.1 Service Pack coming out in 3 weeks.

2. You will need your V4 CD-ROM to translate your libraries. Both V4 & V5 use the V4 libraries. PT4, PD4, LD4 & LN4.

3. Version V4.0 had some bugs, but they were removed with V4.0.1. We use V4 without any problems. As a matter of fact I could never go back to V3.6. I would loose "Stitch Vias", "Slotted Holes", "7 Character Alphanumeric Pins", "Custom Thermals", "Trace Length Monitor" and many other V4 features that we're using.

[randychase]

I highly recommend upgrading to 4.0.1 instead of 3.6.


4.0.1 has a lot of nice features and I have not noticed any substantial bugs, beyond what we had in 3.6.

I am playing with 5, but I am not using it on client's designs yet.