PCB design glossary
Autorouter
An EDA tool that lays down copper traces on a PCB automatically, based on the schematic netlist and a set of design rules.
An autorouter takes the connections defined in a schematic (the netlist) and figures out where to put copper on the PCB so every net is connected. Modern autorouters respect design rules — minimum trace width, clearance, via size — and try to minimize total trace length, layer changes, and crosstalk.
Traditional autorouters rely on greedy shortest-path search with rip-up-and-retry. Newer AI-based routers, like the one in PCBEditor, reason about the whole board globally and tend to produce layouts closer to what a skilled engineer would hand-draw.
Designing a board that uses autorouter?
PCBEditor turns a plain-English description into a verified schematic — then handles placement, routing, and export to Gerber or KiCad.
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