@User Hi Tim, I’m looking for ideas (theories) and methods (implementations) behind the Magic auto-routing. For example imagine we have two boxes (e.g.

box 0um 0um 1um 1um; box 5um 5um 6um 6um;

) between a bunch of other boxes on different layers, how does the Magic do the routing job and connect these two? What’s difference b/w Magic methods and OpenLANE’s for routing task?

OpenROAD uses some form of switchbox routing, whereas magic uses some version of an A* search (which is much more time consuming). Magic has a very interesting method that does not rely on tracks, but makes use of magic's corner stitched tile plane database to determine where there are available areas to route. So magic is a trackless router, while openROAD uses route tracks. Magic's router is okay for the occasional simple point-to-point route, but I prefer to hand route using the wire tool and various commands like "fill" and "corner".