get the fitter to stop after placement (i.e. not do routing)

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As far as I know, the only way to do this currently is to use an Arria 10 device.

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Wow that certainly stinks. We're way, way, way past the "pick a different chip" stage.

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Why not raise a ticket directly with altera about it - they may be able to come up with a solution?

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All the usual reasons... they seem annoyed by my industry's bursty purchasing patterns -- aside from samples we make only one (huge) purchase about every three years. Not as bad as X though, who keep asking about projected "quarterly" puchasing volumes over and over and seems oblivious to the fact that their products can be used for anything other than embedded glue logic.

I'm resigned to the fact that because of this we can't rely on our FPGA vendors for any serious support. I confess that I do not even know how to "raise a ticket" with Altera although I guess I could email our sales rep... although he knows it's likely a year or more before our next purchase (= commission) so I'm guessing we are not a high priority for him right now.

Thanks for trying though guys. :)

All you need to do is create an account on myAltera

https://www.altera.com/mal-all/mal-signin.html?resource=%2Fcontent%2Faltera-www%2Fglobal%2Fen_us%2Findex%2Fmyaltera%2Fmal-home.html&$$login$$=%24%24login%24%24&j_reason=unknown&j_reason_code=unknown

Then you can raise a ticket in the "mysupport" section

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All you need to do is create an account on myAltera

https://www.altera.com/mal-all/mal-signin.html?resource=%2Fcontent%2Faltera-www%2Fglobal%2Fen_us%2Findex%2Fmyaltera%2Fmal-home.html&$$login$$=%24%24login%24%24&j_reason=unknown&j_reason_code=unknown

Then you can raise a ticket in the "mysupport" section

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Thanks Tricky, I will give it a try.