Help with Creating Board

I'm not sure that's entirely fair, Joern. I've watched a few tutorials on

laying out the board but they were all very simple designs. I fully

understand that the components need to be placed on the board, but what

surprised me is that after moving just a few the air wires connected to

pins that didn't make sense. Rather than put all the comps on the board

with what looked like odd connections, I thought I'd ask first.

As for the colour setting, my Options doesn't have a special setting for

the board layout; I only see one for the schematic layout which I want to

leave as white (default). The default for the board view was black, so I

don't know how it changed if I didn't do change anything.

--

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

On Fri, 14 Sep 2012 09:21:41 -0400, Ross Waddell wrote:

I'm not sure that's entirely fair, Joern. I've watched a few tutorials

on laying out the board but they were all very simple designs. I fully

understand that the components need to be placed on the board, but what

surprised me is that after moving just a few the air wires connected to

pins that didn't make sense. Rather than put all the comps on the board

with what looked like odd connections, I thought I'd ask first.

I'm still on Eagle 5, but I assume that the behavior is the same in 6:

The ratsnest shows what pin is connected to what.  The ratsnest gets

generated when a part is placed, when a board is created (by clicking the

board icon in the schematic editor) or when you invoke the ratsnest

command.  The ratsnest that is created makes an airwire from any given

pin to the closest pin on the same net -- that connection doesn't change

when you move components around, only when you do another ratsnest

command.

So if you start with your board freshly-generated from the schematic and

place all your parts, the airwires will all be on the right nets, but

they'll be going every which way.  Invoking the ratsnest command again

will re-calculate all the shortest paths, and make things much more

rational.

Also, if you're laying out by hand, it's often useful to lay out a

connection, then do a ratsnest command -- the ratsnest will recalculate

to each bend in the wires that you've laid down, which is sometimes an

aid to laying stuff out.

On the tutorials:  It will be a big help if you pick out one or two of

the simple tutorials and do them.  This will let you get a grasp of the

basic operations before you try to do it in a great big board.  Then when

you go to doing your board you'll be partially over getting overwhelmed

by the tool itself, so it'll be less likely that you'll be overwhelmed by

trying to manage the tool+board.

On getting help locally:  Check to see if there's a local robotics club

or (less likely) an amateur radio club that actively builds stuff. 

Someone there may use Eagle, and may either let you visit them and hang

over their shoulder while they lay out a board, or they may be willing to

go help you for the cost of a six-pack of something nice.

You're welcome to come here, but Oregon is a bit far from Toronto.

--

My liberal friends think I'm a conservative kook.

My conservative friends think I'm a liberal kook.

Why am I not happy that they have found common ground?

Tim Wescott, Communications, Control, Circuits & Software

http://www.wescottdesign.com

On Fri, 14 Sep 2012 09:21:41 -0400, Ross Waddell wrote:

I'm not sure that's entirely fair, Joern. I've watched a few tutorials

on laying out the board but they were all very simple designs. I fully

understand that the components need to be placed on the board, but what

surprised me is that after moving just a few the air wires connected to

pins that didn't make sense. Rather than put all the comps on the board

with what looked like odd connections, I thought I'd ask first.

I'm still on Eagle 5, but I assume that the behavior is the same in 6:

The ratsnest shows what pin is connected to what.  The ratsnest gets

generated when a part is placed, when a board is created (by clicking the

board icon in the schematic editor) or when you invoke the ratsnest

command.  The ratsnest that is created makes an airwire from any given

pin to the closest pin on the same net -- that connection doesn't change

when you move components around, only when you do another ratsnest

command.

So if you start with your board freshly-generated from the schematic and

place all your parts, the airwires will all be on the right nets, but

they'll be going every which way.  Invoking the ratsnest command again

will re-calculate all the shortest paths, and make things much more

rational.

Also, if you're laying out by hand, it's often useful to lay out a

connection, then do a ratsnest command -- the ratsnest will recalculate

to each bend in the wires that you've laid down, which is sometimes an

aid to laying stuff out.

On the tutorials:  It will be a big help if you pick out one or two of

the simple tutorials and do them.  This will let you get a grasp of the

basic operations before you try to do it in a great big board.  Then when

you go to doing your board you'll be partially over getting overwhelmed

by the tool itself, so it'll be less likely that you'll be overwhelmed by

trying to manage the tool+board.

On getting help locally:  Check to see if there's a local robotics club

or (less likely) an amateur radio club that actively builds stuff. 

Someone there may use Eagle, and may either let you visit them and hang

over their shoulder while they lay out a board, or they may be willing to

go help you for the cost of a six-pack of something nice.

You're welcome to come here, but Oregon is a bit far from Toronto.

--

My liberal friends think I'm a conservative kook.

My conservative friends think I'm a liberal kook.

Why am I not happy that they have found common ground?

Tim Wescott, Communications, Control, Circuits & Software

http://www.wescottdesign.com