Using Eagle - A rough guide

[PMowdes]

Hi all

As promised here's the first draft of the Using Eagle guide. I have got as far as using it to draw a schematic, the board stuff will follow.

Eagle_schematic_guide_V1.docx

or

https://www.dropbox.com/s/az2y8chr4nt8fm2/Eagle%20schematic%20guide%20V1.docx?dl=0

There are a things missing that I will update as soon as I can get behind my laptop.

I'm also going to add that I am by no means an expert, there may be better ways to do things so if you have any constructive comments feel free to contribute.

If you have any questions i'll do my best to answer them.

Cheers

Phil

[mug]

THANKS!
I'll go play eagle now

[BassVD]

Cheers, mate! Don't have any time at this moment, but I will definitely check the tutorial! :)

[BassVD]

I've made a few schematics in Eagle and I'm pretty confident they are correct.
Any chance the tutorial will get an update, especially on how to make the actual board?

Thanks!

[PMowdes]

Yes mate,  I got side tracked sorting out the BiPhase PCB stuff (which I finished last night)

I'll get back on it over the next few days.

[BassVD]

Okay, good to hear. Do it at your own pace. :)

[PMowdes]

BassVD, if you have any pressing questions drop me a PM

in the meantime here is the tutorial I used to get started with the board editor.

https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/using-eagle-board-layout

Things to keep an eye out for.

- Use the grid.  Where possible keep to a 0.05" or 0.025" grid.

- Set the maximum board size using the dimension layer (this is usually the only time you want to change the grid to mm).  Keep an eye on the maximum size you can fabricate with the manufacturer, the maximum internal size of your enclosure and the maximum board area allow by EAGLE (on the free version it's 80mm^2 (10x8cm))

- use the autorouter.  A lot of people hate it, but it takes a lot of the effort out of it.

- be careful if you use a copper pour, make sure that you set the NET name to GND (top and bottom layer)

- Turn off the "unrouted" layer when you are placing your components, it makes things easier to see.

- use your schematic whilst placing components, try to put components close to their neighbours, it's not always possible but it helps when routing.

- if you make a mistake with the autorouter use the "ripup;" command to start again.  You can't delete components in board view, only the things you add after the board if generated.

- try to make sure that you have named all of the components on the schematic, this helps finding them in the board editor.

-make sure you have the schematic and board open at the same time, if you need to update something in the schematic it should update the board automatically.

- don't rush anything.

Good luck

[Marbles]

Thanks for this!!

[Andy Miller]

I've been watching this thread because I've been doing a lot of self-taught work in Eagle over the past year.  I've never turned off the unrouted nets while placing my components, because I always felt that having them there shows me some of the connections I'm trying to keep short by placing components wisely.  It doesn't help with everything, because until all the components are placed, there are unrouted nets flying everywhere and some of them are more or less meaningless.  So I can see why PMowdes recommends turning them off if that works better for him.

However. .  .  I just got the latest version of Eagle, the first revision I've had since Autodesk bought them.  When placing components I can now see the net names at the pins and unless I'm mistaken, that's a new feature.  It's made it waaaaay easier to place components wisely, and made the unrouted nets more useful and less confusing/misleading.

It's also much easier to run power and ground traces manually prior to finishing up with Autorouter now.

[PMowdes]

I usually have two screens open, one with the board and one with the schematic.  I usually group parts together and name them in sub groups so I have a rough idea where they go before I start to move them.  

I just find that the airwires make it a little noisy.  By all means toggle the unrouted layer on and off, I just find it easier without them.

Regarding the Ground Net.  I was watching a guy on youtube saying that the thing he hates about autorouters in general is that they route the GND net.  I think most pro's route manually and use a copper pour to connect the GND's.

I think that I have found a way to do this with the autorouter which routes power and signal nets, then allows you to copper pour the GND net.  If this works it will mean that you will have less airwires to autoroute and it should be a much tidier job with less Vias.

I'm writing the board guide at the moment so I will include some stuff on Net classes and the auto router.

I'm still very much learning my way around Eagle so if there is anything that you want to share I'd appreciate it.

[PMowdes]

By the way the new vesion of eagle is much better.  I'm hoping that Autodesk will make some real improvements to it now that they have acquired it.  The Eagle forum on the Autodesk website is a really useful resource.