• Interactive route editor
• Provides a shape-based, gridless routing architecture with intelligent place and route controls
• Offers a customizable user interface
• Incorporates automatic adherence to component entry rules for improved manufacturability
• Supplies multiple plow modes, for the look and control of manual routing
• Automatically follows design rules entered at the schematic or PCB level
• Employs any-angle routing for cleaner routing of high pin-count packages
• Provides controls for routing dense designs according to manufacturers' rules for vias at SMDs
• Post-route design verification checks

PADS Router is a shape-based, gridless route editor that enhances design productivity through the following capabilities:

• Single-button route tools
• Push-and-shove methodology
  • Plow by mouse (as the cursor moves)
  • Plow by click (postpone plowing until you click)
  • Plow by rip-up (un-routes crossed traces)
  • Plowing can push traces ahead or behind the trace being routed
  • "QuickRoute" utility that follows bend points and pushes existing traces away
• Real-time visualization of traces, vias, and unroutes enables preview and modification of placements prior to committing to a pattern
• Dynamic routing, including the ability to:
  • Add and move vias and testpoints
  • Add and stretch segments while maintaining adjacent angles
  • Add and move corners or t-junctions, while automatically stretching adjacent segments and maintaining net rules
  • Create and modify arcs
  • Convert line segments and corners to stretchable, arc'd (mitered) segments and corners

• "On the fly" pin-pair modifications
• Routing controls that maintain pad order and produce special routing patterns to meet specific net geometry requirements
• Multiple options for obstacle handling, including the ability to bend traces or hop over obstacles
• Unique aids for semi-automatic routing of signals driven by design rules
• Rescheduling of net topologies without an ECO

Real-time graphical aids include:

• A trace-length monitor that:
  • Displays routed trace length
  • Shows estimated length to completion
  • Shows whether a trace is violating or within its length constraints
• Guard bands that:
  • Show DRC boundaries
  • Distinguish between individual obstacles
  • Maximize routing density
• A filter for viewing and explaining design rule check violations
  • Familiar keyboard commands, including combinations from PADS Layout (PowerPCB)