Open-source PCB auto-router. Has a CLI mode, so a script can drive it without anyone opening a GUI.glossary, Physical / electrical concepts
Open-source PCB auto-router (Java). Reads DSN, writes SES. Headless mode runs in pure CLI. Needs Java 21+ for v2.x.glossary, Physical / electrical concepts
How it looks
Drawing: a software pipeline
Freerouting is software, so this is a drawing of the round trip it makes with KiCad. It never reads KiCad files directly: it speaks the older Specctra format (DSN in, SES out).
How it works
Where it fits
Freerouting is the open-source autorouter and the shape-based router we compare Ants against; the glossary notes its multi-thread mode is broken, so it runs with -mt 1.
Its result still has to pass KiCad's DRC (the benchmark referee); no router scores itself.