Autotrax

Autotrax

Autotrax PCB design software was originally developed by Protel (now Altium) in the 1980's and 1990's. It is a simple down to earth PCB CAD package that is now a free download from Altium's web site. This is not to be confused with Kovac Software's "AutotraxEDA" package AutoTRAX EDA (which in no way compatible or related).

Please note: Altium do not provide technical support for this program. AutoTRAX EDA is supported by Kovac Software

Protel Autotrax is a program that ran originally under DOS. It runs well under Windows 98, and XP, but runs best in a sandbox (such as DOSBOX) under vista. Autotrax has also been operated very successfully under GNU/Linux in conjunction with the DOSemu emulation software.

Autotrax is primarily a keystroke driven program, but provides a menu in the upper left corner of the screen as each key is pushed, to aid in memorisation. The menu is not in place on the screen if a command is not in progress. The program uses mouse movements almost exclusively for navigation and selection of elements within the circuit board. As a sort of a result of these "limitations" the users get quite accomplished at driving the program, quick at laying out circuit boards, and disinclined to changing to anything newer and, really, slower.

The native file format for Autotrax was "PCB File 4" (as identified in the header). At the same time that Autotrax was available Protel also produced a cut down package called "Easytrax". At the time, Easytrax was free and Autotrax required a license, now both are free. Easytrax was identified by "PCB File 5" in the header, and differed primarily in not allocating hole sizes to pads. The native file format for Autotrax and Easytrax was based on 1 mil (0.001") increments, although the package showed measurements in millimetres if metric was selected. The native file format allows most information necessary to manufacture of basic PCBs, except that it does not allow for non-PTH holes. A defacto industry standard has emerged that if the pad size is specified as less than the hole diameter, the hole is not considered to be plated through. It happens that Autotrax will only allow hole diameters to be manually set to at most 2 mil less than the pad diameter. Two bugs in the Protel autotrax format have to do with "Octagonal" pads ( - on inspection it can be seen that they are not quite regular octagons) and string sizes. In Autotax, string sizes are only ever displayed in multiples of 12 mil, so specification of a string size as something other than a multiple of 12 mil may lead to incorrect import into another package.

Many PCB manufacturers in Australia, and some PCB manufacturers in Asia, will still accept boards in native Protel Autotrax format, rather than requiring export to PCB industry standard Gerber format.

The name AutoTRAX was first used by Protel for their product, Autotrax, in the late 80's and 90's. It is now the US trademark of Ilija Kovacevic, author of AutoTRAX EDA - Registration Number 2469410.

Unlike the Protel version AutoTRAX EDA uses the Microsoft Windows platform and runs on XP, and Vista. The file format is open and is viewable with any text editor as it is XML based. The xml schema is fully documented.

External links

* [http://kov.com/Download/AutoTRAX.aspx Autotrax EDA download]
* [http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/autotrax Autotrax User Group]
* [http://kov.com/Documentation/FileFormat.htm Autotrax file format documentation]
* [http://www.altium.com/Products/AltiumDesigner/Licensingoptions/AltiumDesignerProtellicense2004/Downloads/AltiumFreewareEndUserLicenseAgreement/Autotrax/ Autotrax download]
* [http://www.altium.com/Community/Support/Downloads/ Protel/Altium users support and download forum]
* [http://www.oldcrows.net/~patchell/cad/cad.html More utilities, from Jim Patchell]
* [http://traxlaserplot.sourceforge.net/ A laser plotting utility for Autotrax]
* [http://www.zeta.org.au/~stevenm/layout/pcbtut.html A tutorial for using Autotrax]
* [http://www.airborn.com.au/layout/easytrax.html Newer (VESA) video drivers for Autotrax]
* [http://www.airborn.com.au/layout/printdrv.html Newer printer driver (PCL) by Matthias Hartl]
* [http://www.learnlinux.co.uk/E/technical_notes/DOSemu_AutoTrax/index.html A HowTo for using AutoTrax under SuSE Linux and DOSemu]


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