EAGLE FEATURE SURVEY

Hi Guys,

I explained earlier but it looks that the message didn't make it to the

forum.

I know some of the entries in the survey may seem ridiculous, however

they have been requested by some users and that's why I included them.

If they really are as useless as we think they are then that will be

reflected in the low number of votes for those features.

Market research is a pain and this is my first go at it. We will

continue to do surveys in the future and with better methods to collect

the feedback.

In the meanwhile I appreciate all of the feedback you guys can give and

if you can pass the survey on to colleagues.

Thanks,

Jorge Garcia

Am 06.09.2012 17:22, schrieb Olin Lathrop:

>> User Interface Improvements

 

Like what?  Actually not changing things has great value here.  I've gotten

used to how things are, so I don't want to have to re-learn some other way.

  I've also got my user interface highly customized with hot buttons,

scripts, and ULPs.  Don't mess it up.  The easiest way to guarantee that is

don't mess with it at all.

There are TWO kinds of user interface improvements:

  1. Completely changing a useful interface to make it more trendy or

     something like it. This obviously is rubbish. See Microsoft

     'fluent' interfaces, which for the professional are anything BUT

     fluent.

  2. Using the available interface and improve things so that NEW

     users can UNDERSTAND the functions more quickly and REMEMBER them

     easier, but WITHOUT breaking the workflow of the 'professionals'.

     Here, EAGLE can be improved LOTS - see my EAGLE GUI posts in

     eagle.suggest.eng...

     (Or would you NOT like to SEE the symbol before adding it to the

     device in the device editor? The usage of the dialog would be

     COMPLETELY the same as it is now, only a symbol preview would be

     added)

Andreas Weidner

Andreas Weidner wrote on Fri, 07 September 2012 07:46

(Or would you NOT like to SEE the symbol before adding it to the

device in the device editor? The usage of the dialog would be

COMPLETELY the same as it is now, only a symbol preview would be

added)

Usually there is no question as to which symbol I want to add because I

probably just created it.  A preview does no harm as long as it doesn't

change the current command flow and shortcut keys.  Right now, adding a

symbol to a package is very easy, type Alt-E A.  That gives you a list of

symbols in the library.  Now you use up and down arrows to select the right

one, then ENTER to confirm.  This works fine.  There is no problem to

solve.

I am worried that a preview would make this process more complicated or

bloated.  Right now each symbol uses up one line.  That's nice since a lot

of them can fit onto the screen.  If they took up more space due a preview,

then it would make the process more tedius.

Perhaps in rare cases there might be confusion between different symbols,

but this is the exception case I wouldn't want to have Eagle optimized for

at the expense of the normal case where you can easily see which symbol you

want.

Maybe you need to be more careful about giving symbols useful names?

--

Web access to CadSoft support forums at www.eaglecentral.ca.  Where the CadSoft EAGLE community meets.

i am somewhere between version controle and a tabblett app to at least view shc and brd files.

On 23/08/2012 23:38, Jorge_Garcia wrote:

Hello fellow EAGLE users,

 

I've made a simple GoogleDocs Form as a type of survey and I would like to gather as much feedback as possible. The survey has only one question: What features would you like to see in future versions of EAGLE? Simply select the radio button of the feature you'd like to see, type in a few comments if you so desire and hit the submit button. That's it.

 

Here's the link for the form:

 

http://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEF4MWdPVXgxNjdHMk9aWE5wOTNyQmc6MQ

 

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reply to this thread.

 

Thanks in advance for your participation.

 

Best Regards,

Jorge Garcia

Cadsoft Support

 

First on a Mac using Safari I can only choose one button. Not really a

problem because the biggest problem for me, by far, is the auto-router.

Other things may be awkward but I can get round or by them. The auto

router works OK on two layer boards with through hole components. On

surface mount multilayer boards it is almost useless. It will sometimes

not use a layer at all.

For many circuits there are benefits to hand routing, especially as the

frequency goes up, but for hundreds of I/O ports on a relatively slow

micro-controller, hand routing is tedious and difficult in the extreme.

Someone mentioned this would need a lot of code. I think they are

missing the point. What the auto-router needs is a good algorithm that

treats layers as equals when routing. Most people have computers with

multiple fast cores. There is potential for a giant leap in router

performance.

      Andrew

PS as a benefit it would not require practically any interface changes

so those steeped in the program would have no problems.

On 9/7/2012 12:02 PM, Andrew Forrest wrote:

First on a Mac using Safari I can only choose one button. Not really a

problem because the biggest problem for me, by far, is the auto-router.

Other things may be awkward but I can get round or by them. The auto

router works OK on two layer boards with through hole components. On

surface mount multilayer boards it is almost useless. It will sometimes

not use a layer at all.

 

For many circuits there are benefits to hand routing, especially as the

frequency goes up, but for hundreds of I/O ports on a relatively slow

micro-controller, hand routing is tedious and difficult in the extreme.

 

Someone mentioned this would need a lot of code. I think they are

missing the point. What the auto-router needs is a good algorithm that

treats layers as equals when routing. Most people have computers with

multiple fast cores. There is potential for a giant leap in router

performance.

 

      Andrew

 

PS as a benefit it would not require practically any interface changes

so those steeped in the program would have no problems.

Hi Andrew,

I hope you're doing well. There's a couple of things that can be done to

guide the AUTOROUTER to do what you want to do. For example a common

task that people like to automate is via drops to a ground or power

plane. The general idea is that you route a short distance from the SMD

pad and then drop a via to the power layer.

The autorouter can do that for you without issue here's the setup:

1. In the command line type AUTO GND VCC ... and press enter. Since you

only want to drop to the power planes only those signals should be

routed by specifying them before hand the autorouter will only route

those nets.

2. In the route and bus tabs set the maximum number of vias value to

9999. This tells EAGLE to use as many vias as necessary to route the

net, if you use the defaults that's when you see EAGLE start routing

between components instead of dropping straight down.

3. Disable the optimize runs, the purpose of the optimize runs is to

minimize the number of vias which is not what you want for this application.

If you run it with those parameters you'll find that it does a pretty

good job of dropping straight to your power planes.

This is not to take away from the suggestion, my purpose here is just to

allow you to make better use of what's available now.

hth,

Jorge Garcia

Cadsoft Support

Am 07.09.2012 14:40, schrieb Olin Lathrop:

Maybe you need to be more careful about giving symbols useful names?

Yes. BUT:

  1. Since some of my libraries are 18 years old, and you COULD not

     give symbols useful names then (8 character limit), there is a

     lot of historical rubbish still around. And with, e.g., a

     nearly unlimited supply of OP symbols - with/without compensation,

     with/without offset, with/without shutdown, one/two/three

     output pins etc. - naming them with 8 characters IS a trifle

     difficult. And renaming ALL my symbols created in 18 years is

     QUITE a lot of work...

  2. I often do not want to reinvent the wheel, so want to search

     for a symbol that already looks NEARLY as needed, copy it and

     patch it accordingly. Saves LOTS of time. A preview would be

     GORGEOUS. OK, this would not be in the ADD dialog, but somewhere

     else, but still previews are nice.

  3. And obviously, the previews would behave as everywhere else

     in EAGLE, and NOT break the workflow. NO preview broke the

     workflow so far, so trust CadSoft not to screw everything up.

Andreas Weidner

I need a few more responses, I'm almost at the two hundred response mark. If I could get that I would be satisfied with the survey and start processing the info.

Come one EAGLE community show me some love, end my marketing pain

Best Regards,

Jorge Garcia

Cadsoft Support

I've use a fair few CAD packages. EAGLE has limitations, but I keep coming back to it, because for what it is, it is powerful and, importantly, fast to use. I absolutely love the autorouting features on other platforms, but EAGLE is feature rich in other ways.

One of the greatest benefits to EAGLE is that it is speedy to use - I can very quickly put together a circuit (admittedly the autorouter is slow). However, what takes up most of the time? Parts creation. Honestly, who is happy using pre-created symbols? I wouldn't trust anyones symbols. I create my own for maybe 50-60% of components, to be sure they are the way I want them.

Here are some suggestions for speeding up parts creation:

1. Have some profiles for common shapes (SIL, DIL, 4-sided) and allow the user to pick a pad or SMD, and enter in sufficient dimensions until EAGLE decides it can calculate all remaining dimensions. Datasheets tend to represent measurements in a few different methods, so it would need some intelligence. Some datasheets don't show the landing pattern, but they show the device pins. For that scenario, the profiles should allow the user to enter device pin dimensioning, and then later select pad size, and then allow it to automatically center them under the device pins or to have an offset from center. This is simple stuff, but requires users to perform mental arithmetic for a minute or two (and then double-check!) per device. It all adds up. Save my time and EAGLE becomes so much more valuable (time is everyones most expensive resource).

Ability to have vias even in SMD pads - this is electrically essential in some RF designs.

Abilty to have some nice 'snaps' like Powerpoint 2010, which can automatically centre objects to other objects - this is way more advanced than simple grid snap which never meets anyones needed. I want to be able to automatically center drill holes or board connectors to align with others on the board. If need be, allow the user to

place some temporary sketch lines for alignment if you can't implement the Powerpoint 2010 method.

The measurement method is dire (I know someone else mentioned that above too). I don't want to change grid size just to perform an accurate measurement. It should automatically snap to the edge and center of pads and to the center and edges of drill holes.

Does the latest version of EAGLE support shaped pads? If so, then great. It is needed for modern parts.

Incorporate some new features in the PCB design, such as a layer that allows you to 'draw' lines of small holes for perforating boards so they can be snapped apart. Have more than 16 colours.

Automatically place text '>NAME' and '>VALUE' as soon as I click to create a package or symbol, and save me 30 seconds of my time - this is really obvious stuff and saves time (I can then move the text to where I want it).

Ignore the person criticizing cloud and tablets - it's just a matter of time. Implement that right, and all of a sudden you don't need to maintain multiple builds for Linux, Windows and Mac, and people can work on the move, and you make more revenue.

The scripting is incredible - one of the best features (if not THE best feature) of EAGLE. Keep that up for all new features!

I'd also like to see some better vector fonts with curves! - we have powerful PCs, and we don't need to be restricted to such simplistic fonts. That could be a task for a student to implement, if you purchase the rights to some nice fonts. But it should support more than just 127 characters, and should allow underline and overline.

Am 2012-10-10 00:07, schrieb shabaz:

I've use a fair few CAD packages. EAGLE has limitations, but I keep coming back to it, because for what it is, it is powerful and, importantly, fast to use. I absolutely love the autorouting features on other platforms, but EAGLE is feature rich in other ways.

 

One of the greatest benefits to EAGLE is that it is speedy to use - I can very quickly put together a circuit (admittedly the autorouter is slow). However, what takes up most of the time? Parts creation. Honestly, who is happy using pre-created symbols? I wouldn't trust anyones symbols. I create my own for maybe 50-60% of components, to be sure they are the way I want them.

Here are some suggestions for speeding up parts creation:

1. Have some profiles for common shapes (SIL, DIL, 4-sided) and allow the user to pick a pad or SMD, and enter in sufficient dimensions until EAGLE decides it can calculate all remaining dimensions. Datasheets tend to represent measurements in a few different methods, so it would need some intelligence. Some datasheets don't show the landing pattern, but they show the device pins. For that scenario, the profiles should allow the user to enter device pin dimensioning, and then later select pad size, and then allow it to automatically center them under the device pins or to have an offset from center. This is simple stuff, but requires users to perform mental arithmetic for a minute or two (and then double-check!) per device. It all adds up. Save my time and EAGLE becomes so much more valuable (time is everyones most expensive resource).

 

Ability to have vias even in SMD pads - this is electrically essential in some RF designs.

Abilty to have some nice 'snaps' like Powerpoint 2010, which can automatically centre objects to other objects - this is way more advanced than simple grid snap which never meets anyones needed. I want to be able to automatically center drill holes or board connectors to align with others on the board. If need be, allow the user to

place some temporary sketch lines for alignment if you can't implement the Powerpoint 2010 method.

 

The measurement method is dire (I know someone else mentioned that above too). I don't want to change grid size just to perform an accurate measurement. It should automatically snap to the edge and center of pads and to the center and edges of drill holes.

 

Does the latest version of EAGLE support shaped pads? If so, then great. It is needed for modern parts.

 

Incorporate some new features in the PCB design, such as a layer that allows you to 'draw' lines of small holes for perforating boards so they can be snapped apart. Have more than 16 colours.

Automatically place text '>NAME' and '>VALUE' as soon as I click to create a package or symbol, and save me 30 seconds of my time - this is really obvious stuff and saves time (I can then move the text to where I want it).

 

Ignore the person criticizing cloud and tablets - it's just a matter of time. Implement that right, and all of a sudden you don't need to maintain multiple builds for Linux, Windows and Mac, and people can work on the move, and you make more revenue.

 

The scripting is incredible - one of the best features (if not THE best feature) of EAGLE. Keep that up for all new features!

 

I'd also like to see some better vector fonts with curves! - we have powerful PCs, and we don't need to be restricted to such simplistic fonts. That could be a task for a student to implement, if you purchase the rights to some nice fonts. But it should support more than just 127 characters, and should allow underline and overline.

 

I support all those points with shaped pads and the library editor

features giving highest value for me too.

Also the limited colour palette hurts often.

Regards, Stefan