Out of the Box Gripes

Baron wrote on Thu, 31 December 2009 17:36

James Morrison Inscribed thus:

 

So what is on your list of things that EAGLE could configure

better

out of

the box.  I'm not talking about any new functionality.  I'm

thinking

about

things that EAGLE will do, but is just not configured out of the

box.

Or things that everyone does the first time they install EAGLE.

 

The documentation really needs to be updated and "Dumbed Down" a

little

for new users.  Even now I find myself asking "what did that mean" and

whilst the help is useful its not always obvious.  I agree with the

cheat sheet idea.

I think you're onto something.  Whenever I have to use a CAD tool I'm not

familiar with the first thing I do is google for a cheat sheet for it.

That would be of great advantage to new users.  Once you get over that

first hurdle and see how EAGLE handles its commands it gets a lot easier.

A one-sheet 8.5x11 (or A4) page could include everything you need to know

to get started.

The tutorial and manual have their place.  But when you're working on a

design it's not so good at suggesting the command you need.

Cheers,

James.

--

James Morrison  ~~~  Stratford Digital

email:  james@eaglecentral.ca

web: http://www.eaglecentral.ca

Specialising in CadSoft EAGLE

• Online Sales to North America

• Electronic Design Services

• EAGLE Enterprise Toolkit

--

Browser access to CadSoft Support Forums at http://www.eaglecentral.ca

Olin wrote on Thu, 31 December 2009 18:03

James Morrison wrote on Thu, 31 December 2009 16:59

1)  bill of materials and x-y data generation integrated,

documented, and supported.

 

I've got that, or at least a good start to it.  I'd hate to see

everyone develop their own incompatible attribute definitions for BOM

generation.  My ULPs and other tools for that are freely available.

And I have my own ULP as well.  This is a great example of ways where

CadSoft could make life easier for everyone.  But more than a ULP, it needs

to be more integrated into the GUI, IMHO.  It's fine to have to run a ULP

to do special stuff or things that you don't do very often.  But for common

tasks like BOM creation it should really be more integrated into the tool.

Of course a way to do that would be to allow a configurable tool bar that

is configured out of the box to do all of this stuff.  Yes, the text menu

works there is absolutely nothing in it by default useful and lots of

newbies are used to toolbars.

Quote:

Quote:

4)  default CAM jobs mirror bottom layer, shouldn't be done

normally

 

There should be template CAM files for a few common board

configurations, like 2 and 4 layer.

Agreed.  Why not for all configurations?  EAGLE supports up to 16 layers to

have CAM jobs for common configurations for 2,4,6,8,10,12,14, and 16 layer

boards.  Maybe even for some common hobby formats like 1-sided with

jumpers.   And for gerber output and maybe for some graphical output format

for documentation.  Those are easy to create for CadSoft and would go a

long way to helping newbies.

Quote:

How about a few autorouter configurations for common problems, like 4

layer with ground on layer 3, 2 layer with pseudo-ground plane on bottom,

etc?  It took me quite a bit of experimenting to get useable

configurations.

Great idea.

Cheers,

James.

--

James Morrison  ~~~  Stratford Digital

email:  james@eaglecentral.ca

web: http://www.eaglecentral.ca

Specialising in CadSoft EAGLE

• Online Sales to North America

• Electronic Design Services

• EAGLE Enterprise Toolkit

--

Browser access to CadSoft Support Forums at http://www.eaglecentral.ca

James Morrison wrote on Thu, 31 December 2009 16:59

1)  bill of materials and x-y data generation integrated, documented,

and supported.

I've got that, or at least a good start to it.  I'd hate to see everyone

develop their own incompatible attribute definitions for BOM generation.

My ULPs and other tools for that are freely available.

Quote:

4)  default CAM jobs mirror bottom layer, shouldn't be done normally

There should be template CAM files for a few common board configurations,

like 2 and 4 layer.

Quote:

That's a start, I'm sure there are a ton more.

How about a few autorouter configurations for common problems, like 4 layer

with ground on layer 3, 2 layer with pseudo-ground plane on bottom, etc?

It took me quite a bit of experimenting to get useable configurations.

--

Browser access to CadSoft Support Forums at http://www.eaglecentral.ca

James Morrison Inscribed thus:

Hello everyone,

 

EAGLE is quite powerful and flexible.  But with great flexibility

comes great irritation if you don't know how to do it (or even that

you can). And new users may either get discouraged and leave the

community, work inefficiently for years and not realise it, or even

worse, not realise an easy to fix issue and get back boards that don't

work (thinking of cam job mirroring of bottom layer).

 

So what is on your list of things that EAGLE could configure better

out of

the box.  I'm not talking about any new functionality.  I'm thinking

about

things that EAGLE will do, but is just not configured out of the box.

Or things that everyone does the first time they install EAGLE.

 

Here's a start, please add to it.  This is meant to make EAGLE even

better,

not just annoy people, so try to be constructive   Hopefully the new

people at Newark will take this list seriously as it greatly effects

that

first impression new users get.  A bad one and they might never come

back.

 

1)  bill of materials and x-y data generation integrated, documented,

and supported.

 

2)  advanced find integrated, documented, and supported

 

3)  better use of colour pallette and default values other than

indices 16-63 being gray (or grey if you like)

 

4)  default CAM jobs mirror bottom layer, shouldn't be done normally

 

5)  key assignments for all normal activities, documented and

supported. Of course, users can make their own changes by editing

eagle.scr etc, but

again most users don't really know that is possible.  And a template

document that you can edit to give new employees the cheat sheet.

 

That's a start, I'm sure there are a ton more.

 

Cheers,

 

James.

Hi James,

The documentation really needs to be updated and "Dumbed Down" a little

for new users.  Even now I find myself asking "what did that mean" and

whilst the help is useful its not always obvious.  I agree with the

cheat sheet idea.

--

Best Regards:

                     Baron.