pcb software queston

[Guest]

i got into the eagle software this week and have really enjoyed learning to use it. (using os x 10.3.6 x11 server) there are a few buggy things hopefully someone can help me with. when working on the board page, after i move things into place and press autoroute, and then try to move something again and press autoroute again, it seems my wires stay connected still but parts of the wires stay where they were, creating overlaps and an unclean look. i thought that if you moved a part, then pressed autoroute again, it should start over from scratch and route a fresh board? any advice?

second part: i experimented with osmand also. it seems much faster to me just to place parts and connect the dots in osmand vs. redrawing a schematic and dealing in eagle. maybe someone with a lot of experience
can point out a benefit for using schematic layouts first. the few boards i have made in the past were drawn on simple drawing programs(turbo cad, claris draw etc), then i make a transparency and have a board soon after. thanks for any thoughts on boardmaking approaches.

 

[mcs]

[quote author="originator"]after i move things into place and press autoroute[/quote]
There's the error - don't press autoroute. Autoroute is generally not a good idea, unless you have a very good autorouter - and audio circuits are never autorouted :grin:

Learn to place the parts correctly and then route by hand.

And the second part. The advantage of having your schematic editor and PCB layout software work together is DRC (design rule checking). If your schematic is drawn correctly, you can't make a PCB with errors.

Best regards,

Mikkel C. Simonsen

 

[Guest]

great! that will help. i just figured out that in most cases you have to "rip up" what is not right and then autoroute or manual route it again. i will stick to the schematic method for now. thanks.

 

[SmashTV]

[quote author="rf"]In Eagle there is no easy way (that I have found) to copy sections of work and duplicate them.[/quote]
It's there, just not very intuitive. Here is a copy of when I posted about this last year on the MIDIbox forum:

[quote author="SmashTV"]Hey all!

With Eagle's less than intuitive interface, some of the basic functions are cryptic at best, like copy & paste. I probably wasted a few hours without copy/paste when I started with Eagle, so here is how you do it:

This works in the schematic and board windows, but keep in mind that in the board view the "origin" layer(s) need to be visible for copy/paste/move to work properly. This is layer 23 for a single-sided board, and 23 and 24 for double sided.

First click the selection tool:

Then select the area you want to copy,

Then select the Cut tool:

And the weird part, Eagle does not actually copy the selection until you click the traffic light icon at the top:

Finally click the paste tool:

and place the copy where you want it.

Have fun!

SmashTV
[/quote]

 

[Guest]

well in the schematic window it copies fine like you described. in board view, i first experienced that i must create a new board, then i can paste as many as i want like you say. but then i tried it again and it worked no problem. i was unable to go backward to a schematic though with the copies.

sort of a weird program, but once i get used to it i like it better all the time. some parts are very unintuitive. ultimately if you need to create a lot of boards and there isn't room on the trial version, just export the layouts at 300 dpi, load them in photoshop or similar, then put the copies as you like. that is an easy work around for the size limit. if the small size is a problem then you are stuck with another program or pay the man.

 

[Guest]

you can export at whatever you want really. i just experimented with 300dpi only. you can also export at double size, then carry that ink jet copy to a printer, have them put it back on a transparency at %50 so it is the original size. that way you get a slightly better image. starting larger then reducing gives better quality.

what bugs me is that they want $1200us for the complete pro kit with larger board sizes. i think that is high.

 

[Guest]

i tried a clipbpard monochrome export at 600 no problem. i am using os x with x11 server though. i have not seen it crash ever on my system.