Way of making point A to point B measurements within a layout

On 10/27/2010 12:38 AM, Klaus Schmidinger wrote:

On 10/26/10 22:41, Gary Gofstein wrote:

>> On 10/26/2010 9:02 AM, johnshelley wrote:

>>> It would be handy to have a tool, by using two mouse clicks, to

>>> measure and display the distance between two points within a layout.

>>> The points could snap to the snap grid.  Protel has this tool under

>>> the "reports" menu drop down.  I miss it now that I use EAGLE.

>>>

>> many requests for this seemingly obvious tool.

>>

>> The EAGLE way to do this is to use the mark command to set the origin at

>> one point and then just move the mouse to the other point and read off

>> the value.

 

And in what way does this not do what John wants?

 

Klaus Schmidinger

It does what he needs, never said it doesn't...and as for what he

wants, that should be clear from his question.

It is different from most user's expectations of how the tool should

work. That's why they sometimes can't figure it out. In my opinion, it

is also clumsy to use for checking dimensions, for the reasons others

have said.

When there's lots of mechanical specs, and these days that's very

common, it's not so much fun. The best solution in these cases, with

EAGLE, is often entering coordinates directly, but did they get snapped

to the grid? I wouldn't know, you, the designers, would know EAGLE's

behaviour in this case, but not me.

And, you need to do a lot checking and rechecking of dimensions because

it's amazing how things get moved in a layout without your awareness.

And this is when the mark method can get clumsy. Maybe I just don't know

how to use it, but how easy is it to forget to turn off the grid and

make a measurement that seems correct but isn't, or seems incorrect yet

is? I think very easy.

And in my opinion, any ruler tool snapping to the grid is probably not

something good here, snapping to edges and centers would be better.

So, Mark works fine for this. But is it the best way?

James Morrison wrote:

>Yes, Bert nailed it.  The difference is that EAGLE's mark tool is only as

>accurate as the grid setting.

which is not bad per se. if there was a measurement tool, I would like

to choose which grid to use.

Currently I do "gr fin ma" click, move to other point, read value, "gr

la" if I want a measurement with resolution below the current grid,

but I also use "mark" with a grid.

Other CAD tools will automatically snap the measurement to some object.

this would be a nice option and improvement over current

possibilities.

Oliver

"James Morrison" <james@eaglecentral.ca> wrote in message

news:ia961t$ldu$1@cheetah.cadsoft.de...

As a minimum such a tool should be able to snap to the center or edge of

any object on any layer.  This would include, but not limited to,

wires, circles, rectangles, polygons, ...

So the only thing in your way is the grid? Its very easy to draw a wire

between two points and right click its properties to find the length,

followed by an undo.

But it WOULD be nice to be able to see the properties of sub-library items,

such as pads, smd's, holes in a component... And even pins on schematic

level.

Question is if Cadsoft wants to direct all users to use the same work

method, or if they want to open for more personal tastes. I guess both ways

have their advantages and disadvantages.

>> The EAGLE way to do this is to use the mark command to set the origin

at

>> one point and then just move the mouse to the other point and read off

>> the value.

 

And in what way does this not do what John wants?

Yes, Bert nailed it.  The difference is that EAGLE's mark tool is only as

accurate as the grid setting.  Other CAD tools will automatically snap the

measurement to some object.  Usually the object is the center of something

or the edge of something.

Think like you are trying to match your PCB to some auto-cad drawing since

this will most likely come up when you are trying to make sure that your

PCB matches some drawing of an enclosure or some other physical feature of

the system.  Mechanical engineers use the strangest points of reference

sometimes to indicate how far something is from something else.  Usually

they are concerned with edges, not with the center of mass for a component.

So EAGLE should have a tool to help the designer ensure that the physical

distances are all correct.

As a minimum such a tool should be able to snap to the center or edge of

any object on any layer.  This would include, but not limited to,

wires, circles, rectangles, polygons, ...

James.

--

James Morrison  ~~~  Stratford Digital

Specializing in CadSoft EAGLE

• Online Sales to North America

• Electronic Design Services

• EAGLE Enterprise Toolkit

--

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

"Klaus Schmidinger" <Klaus.Schmidinger@cadsoft.de> wrote in message

news:ia8ktq$2nn$1@cheetah.cadsoft.de...

On 10/26/10 22:41, Gary Gofstein wrote:

>> On 10/26/2010 9:02 AM, johnshelley wrote:

>>> It would be handy to have a tool, by using two mouse clicks, to

>>> measure and display the distance between two points within a layout.

>>> The points could snap to the snap grid.  Protel has this tool under

>>> the "reports" menu drop down.  I miss it now that I use EAGLE.

>>>

>> many requests for this seemingly obvious tool.

>>

>> The EAGLE way to do this is to use the mark command to set the origin at

>> one point and then just move the mouse to the other point and read off

>> the value.

 

And in what way does this not do what John wants?

 

Klaus Schmidinger

Klaus, are you still arguing this one?  Yes, the "Mark" tool can be used to

measure distances, but it is just not very convenient.

For example, what's the drill size in that pad there?

Using Mark:

Zoom in.  Of course the boundaries of the hole are not on grid.  Change the

grid to 5 mil.  Nope, not fine enough.  Change it to 1 mil.  OK, that allows

me to get pretty close to the edges.  Now click the Mark tool, and click on

a grid point near the edge.  Now move the cursor to the opposite edge, and

read the distance, being careful not to move the mouse while I look up.

If we had a "measurement" tool such as seems to be found in just about any

other CAD tool, this might work like this:

Zoom in.  Click Measure.  Click at one edge (anywhere -- doesn't have to be

on grid).  Click on the opposite edge.  Read the distance.

Please, please, please, just give us one of those cute little ruler icons!

--

Bert Menkveld

P.Eng.

Greentronics

bert@greentronics.com

On 10/26/10 22:41, Gary Gofstein wrote:

On 10/26/2010 9:02 AM, johnshelley wrote:

>> It would be handy to have a tool, by using two mouse clicks, to

>> measure and display the distance between two points within a layout.

>> The points could snap to the snap grid.  Protel has this tool under

>> the "reports" menu drop down.  I miss it now that I use EAGLE.

>>

many requests for this seemingly obvious tool.

 

The EAGLE way to do this is to use the mark command to set the origin at

one point and then just move the mouse to the other point and read off

the value.

And in what way does this not do what John wants?

Klaus Schmidinger

--

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D-84568 Pleiskirchen, Germany           URL:     www.cadsoft.de

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On 10/26/2010 9:02 AM, johnshelley wrote:

It would be handy to have a tool, by using two mouse clicks, to measure and display the distance between two points within a layout.  The points could snap to the snap grid.  Protel has this tool under the "reports" menu drop down.  I miss it now that I use EAGLE.

 

many requests for this seemingly obvious tool.

The EAGLE way to do this is to use the mark command to set the origin at

one point and then just move the mouse to the other point and read off

the value.