Compared to other board layout programs, EAGLE has a few features that
are absolutely WONDERFUL and make everyday-work MUCH easier, e.g.:
- The POSSIBILITY to assign keyboard shortcuts
- The POSSIBILITY to define layer display setups that CAN be
directly accessed without clicking a hundred times in the
DISPLAY dialog
- A nice layer drawing algorithm that CAN produce a MUCH
clearer board display, even with multiple layers shown (other
programs tend to show only ONE layer decently, which then often
obscures others)
So far, so (very) good. I like that. The only problem with these
wonderful functions is that the user CAN make things work efficiently.
But only after SERIOUS manual-reading and several long hours of
trial-and-error. From scratch (after a new installation), these
functions do NOT work so well, because they either lack defaults
completely, or the default settings are quite, ermmm, suboptimal.
Consider keyboard shortcuts first:
1. EAGLE comes with an EXTREMELY limited set of shortcuts (F1-F10),
some of which (as I've heard) don't even work properly on a Mac
due to OS restriction (but I've not tested this).
2. Function keys are very useful, but it's QUITE hard to keep those
in mind, because there is NO logical connection between the
numbers 1 to 10 and the assigned commands.
3. It would help if the assigned functions were GROUPED like the
functions keys are grouped (on a standard keyboard), like
- first block = zoom commands,
- second block = grid commands,
- third block = something else,
but this is NOT the case (and would still be arbitrary, anyway).
4. Assigning shortcuts is easy, of course, but the user might get
a bit confused with the ASSIGN dialog:
- The default menus show the shortcuts Ctrl+Z for UNDO and
Ctrl+Y for REDO. Fine. These shortcuts even WORK (wonderful).
- Opening the ASSIGN dialog, these keys are NOT mentioned.
Instead, Alt+BS and 3 others are shown. They all work, and
it's good that they ARE defined, but why don't Ctrl+Z and
Ctrl+Y appear?
5. And why does the user NEED to assign all missing shortcuts in
the first place? Why not provide him with a more featured list
of keys? Of course some people might hate these, but, hey,
that's no reason to provide NOTHING useful at all.
6. Therefore, make EAGLE come with a DECENT set of shortcuts,
which might help newbies work EFFICIENTLY from scratch, and
which experts might patch as wanted. Putting the most-often
used command onto Ctrl+ could
be useful AND easy to keep in mind. See my posting 'Useful
keyboard shortcuts' in 'eagle-supprt.eng' from 2011-07-22
for an example.
Consider layer setups second:
7. With the exception of 'last', NO display aliases are defined
from scratch. What a pity. A user might even miss the alias
possibility completely.
8. OF COURSE some people might not agree with any predefined
aliases, but, hey, that's no reason to provide NOTHING useful
at all.
9. One typical question with layer-based programs like EAGLE is
'which layers are necessary for what I want to DO?'. The user
more or less ALWAYS knows what he WANTS to do, but he doesn't
know how all the layers are CALLED.
10. Therefore, why not provide him with some display aliases
that help him with the desired ACTION? The students in our
institute get something like the following (we do not use
EXACTLY the settings below, but something rather special in
conjunction with a ULP and some special layers, so the text
below MIGHT contain errors):
DISPLAY = RouteTop None ?? Top Pads Vias Unrouted \
Dimension tPlace tOrigins tNames tDocu tKeepout \
tRestrict vRestrict Reference Document Jumper;
DISPLAY = RouteBottom None ?? Bottom Pads Vias Unrouted \
Dimension bPlace bOrigins bNames bDocu bKeepout \
bRestrict vRestrict Reference Document Jumper;
DISPLAY = RouteBoth None ?? Top Bottom Pads Vias \
Unrouted Dimension tPlace bPlace tOrigins bOrigins \
tNames bNames tDocu bDocu tKeepout bKeepout tRestrict \
bRestrict vRestrict Reference Document Jumper;
DISPLAY = Airwires None ?? Unrouted;
DISPLAY = FinishTop None ?? Top Pads Vias Unrouted \
Dimension Reference tRestrict vRestrict;
DISPLAY = FinishBottom None ?? Bottom Pads Vias Unrouted \
Dimension Reference bRestrict vRestrict;
DISPLAY = CopperTop None ?? Top Pads Vias Dimension \
Reference;
DISPLAY = CopperBottom None ?? Bottom Pads Vias \
Dimension Reference;
DISPLAY = PlaceplanTop None ?? Dimension tPlace tOrigins \
tNames tValues tDocu Reference Document Jumper BoardFrame;
DISPLAY = PlaceplanBottom None ?? Dimension bPlace \
bOrigins bNames bValues bDocu Reference Document Jumper \
BoardFrame;
DISPLAY = PlaceplanBoth None ?? Dimension tPlace \
bPlace tOrigins bOrigins tNames bNames tValues bValues \
tDocu bDocu Reference Document Jumper BoardFrame;
DISPLAY = ImprintTop None ?? Dimension tOrigins tStop \
Reference tPlace tNames;
DISPLAY = ImprintBottom None ?? Dimension bOrigins bStop \
Reference bPlace bNames;
11. In OUR installation, the above works together with a dedicated
ULP that makes some further adjustments, e.g.
- Displaying only the airwires also switches off the grid.
- Displaying 'CopperBottom' also switches off holes in pads
and vias, and shows these layers in the 'bottom' color.
- etc.
This MIGHT even be made possible via the command line (a
certain display alias could start a list of commands), but
for now it would be sufficient JUST to provide some useful
defaults.
Consider layer display third. As a clarity example, I provide four
screenshots of the SAME board (double-sided, with THT components on top
and SMD components on both sides) with four different colour schemes.
Due to newsgroup size limitations, I send these files to Walter Spermann
directly.
12. 'eagle4display.png':
This shows the board as EAGLE 4 would have done.
Advantages: - Routing and component layers nicely visible
- Suitable for dark and moderately light rooms
Disadvantages: - Some restrict layers NOT visible
- Top and bottom populations look identical
- Grid too prominent
(All in all, a nice display with a few inconveniencies)
13. 'eagle5display.png':
This shows the board as EAGLE 5 (and 6, I think) does.
Advantages: - Top and top component layers nicely visible
- Suitable for dark and moderately light rooms
Disadvantages: - Some restrict layers nearly invisible
- Bottom population nearly invisible
- Top layer too prominent, nearly obfuscates
bottom layer
- Grid hardly noticable in some areas
(All in all, this display is WORSE than with EAGLE 4. This
was the reason why, in the beginning of EAGLE 5, I complained
LOUDLY about the quality of display. Only after HOURS of
trial-and-error I got better results)
14. 'blackdisplay.png':
This display makes EXTENSIVE use of transparency.
Advantages: - EXCELLENT visibility of nearly all layers + grid
- Bottom and top population easily distinguishable
Disadvantages: - Not suited for light environments
(All in all, the best visibility, but only for dark rooms)
15. 'whitedisplay.png':
This also EXTENSIVELY uses transparency, but on a white
background. The colours look a bit, ermm, girly, but this is
the ONLY scheme I've EVER encountered that works properly in
a LIGHT environment.
Advantages: - EXCELLENT visibility of nearly all layers + grid
- Suited for dark AND light environments
Disadvantages: - Top and bottom populations look nearly same
- Some grouped objects don't look very prominent
16. I have NOT included a screenshot of EAGLE's white background
default, because it's absolutely unusable, because the
components are nearly invisible.
By some reason, EAGLE's display defaults since version 5 are worse than
with version 4. It IS possible to get MUCH better results, but ONLY with
lots of fiddling. It would be MUCH nicer if new users could benefit from
NICE displays without hours of work. For example, provide SEVERAL
presets and add a little bit of information for the user. See the
attached (German) screenshot as an example of how this may look. Hints:
- Ignore the other tabs of the dialog.
- The displayed warning about incompatibilities is due to more
than 8 base colours being used, which is an EAGLE non-standard.
WHY is it non-standard? You have 32 colours available. Why does
the default only use 8? That seems SUCH a useless limitation.
Synopsis: Providing NICE and USEFUL defaults makes working with EAGLE
MUCH more comfortable from scratch, and still leaves all possibilities
open for experts. Try it.
Andreas Weidner