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Learn how Autodesk Fusion 360 provides you with the necessary routing tools and environment settings to make interactive routing easy and efficient.

Have you ever heard someone say that they can’t wait to begin routing their signal on their PCB? This is one of the most tedious processes when layout out a PCB, but it’s the most satisfactory. Let’s walk through how Fusion 360 simplifies this process.

Benefits of Violator Modes in Fusion 360

They allow you to set the behavior of the trace as you route the signal. First, the walk-around mode is great because it will guide you and avoid any violation, but will not move existing traces and vias. The manual route mode allows you to have full control of your routing. DRC will remain active and will display any errors that might be showing up by creating hatch marks in the violation area.

The push and shove mode will move traces and vias out of the way to make space for the new routed signal. When placing vias, it will displace adjacent vias and traces as well. This mode will not affect traces or vias that have been locked. 

Finally, push and shove will move vias and traces to make space for new traces and vias. It’s easy to switch between all modes depending on the complexity of the design you’re working on.

Interactive Routing in Fusion 360

When routing the trace you’ll notice it works its way around any area of violation. You can virtually go from point to point without any worry. If you need to follow a different path, no worries! There’s no need to complete the route then rip up the trace and start again. Simply route the segment of concern and the redundancy will be automatically removed. It’s also possible to remove this mode if you’d like.

Next, let’s look at routing a group of traces. This amazing feature allows you to select a group of signals and route them. By pressing the press space bar you’ll be able to switch layers and select your preferred via alignment. You can use the stagger option to save some space on the board. At any point, you can press enter and Quick Route will complete the routing. This time-saving feature can be used with any of the manual routing options.

Quick Route Options

Quick Route has its own routing engine and helps you get rid of some of the simple routing you have on your PCB.

Quite Route Airwire

The Quick Route Airwire will do its best to route the selected signal from point to point. There are layers, via properties, and trace width options available. Allowing you to truly save significant routing time on your design.

Quick Route Guided

With Quick Route Guided you can select a group of signals and predefine a path. The traces will follow the selected path that you define. This gives you great control when working with large components.

Quick Route Smooth

Quick Route Smooth, only works on existing traces and will optimize their distance by eliminating as many bends as possible on the trace. This feature can be used on traces that have been manually routed, interactively routed, and even traces that have been defined by the Autorouter. Remember that while you are manually routing them Loop Route remove is active by default. So while re-routing an existing trace the loop will automatically disappear. This avoids having to take the time to rip up.

Take a look at the following quick tip video to see these interactive routing capabilities in action.

Ready to give Fusion 360 electronics a try? Get started with a free 30-day trial today.