ELECTRA Batch Routing

ELECTRA supports a broad spectrum of PCB CAD systems by

reading the widely-employed Design File (DSN) format.
ELECTRA comes with its own GUI or can also be used from
the host CAD system in “stealth” mode and controlled through
command line switches and monitored during routing through
message log and route status files.

The following features are available in ELECTRA v1.3 or

higher.

Batch mode syntax:

Switch options Function

-design <design_file> Runs using this design or session file

-do <do_file> Runs commands from the DO file
-w <route_file> Import route file
-nog Runs without GUI
-nom Runs without Menubar
-quit Exit after last DO file command

Example of batch file (run.bat) to run multiple designs:

electra -design c:\batch\Board1.dsn -do c:\batch\Basic1.do -quit

electra -design c:\batch\Board2.dsn -do c:\batch\Medium.do -quit
electra -design c:\batch\Board3.dsn -do c:\batch\Advanced.do -quit

Filenames must be specified with their full absolute path.

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 Note that if the filename contains spaces, then the name string
needs to be enclosed by quotes. For example: “c:\electra\demo
designs\demo test.dsn”

How to gain visibility and control during “no graphics” mode:

If the nog command line switch is supplied, ELECTRA will run

without graphics and won’t appear on the task bar either.

During nog mode, a log file and a route status file can be used
to monitor ELECTRA and presented on the Host CAD System.

A output message log file is automatically created after a

design file is loaded or after a DO file is processed. This log file
can be used to programmatically check for parsing errors.
When the design file is successful loaded, the message log file
content is empty. If a DO file is provided in nog mode, then a
the log file will report all the commands that were executed,
with any parsing error.

The message log file is named after the design file name and is
created in the same design directory with a log extension:
<design_name>.log

In nog mode, a route status file is automatically generated for

every routed connection and can be used to monitor routing
progress. The route status is located in the design directory and
is named after the design file with a .rts extension:
<design_name>.rts

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Here is an example of a routing status file that may contain up
to five keywords:

Algo: Route
Pass: 1/20
Connect: 1424/2138
Conflicts: 12
Completion: 38.47%

where:

Algo = One of the following algorithm: Route, Clean, Filter,

Clean, Bus, Recorner or Fanout
Pass = Current_Pass / Total_Passes
Connect = Current_Attempted / Total_Connections
Conflicts = Total shorts and DRC violations
Completion = Completion percentage

Note that for Bus, Recorner and Fanout algorithms, the

keyword Pass is replaced by Attempt: number.

During routing, ELECTRA can be externally stopped and

closed. This can be done by simply placing a empty file in the
design directory, the file must be named ~quit

Only one instance of the application can be run at the same

time, so if ELECTRA is stopped before its completion, make
sure that the process is ended by placing a file called ~quit.
Once detected by ELECTRA, the file will be deleted.

Some useful DO commands for batch mode activity:

autosave on | off
bestsave on | off
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 Controls automatic saving after every routing pass (autosave) or
the best routing solution (bestsave). Routing result is saved into
a file named “autosave.rte” or “bestsave.rte”

status_file
Creates a status file with routing history. The status_file is
located in the design directory and named after the design name,
with the extension sts: <design_name>.sts