Questions regarding using Eagle

Nelson Lopes wrote on Tue, 27 November 2012 23:52

For example, when you want to move a group of components, we have to do

the following steps:

Wow, you're doing this the most difficult way possible.  Learn to use the

command line, ALT keys, and shortcut keys, and things will go much faster.

Quote:

1). Select the group tool

Or just ALT-E,G.  It just happens that this can all be done with the left

hand, so the right hand can be on the mouse.

Quote:

2). Highlight all the components on the board

Note there are at least two ways to define a group with the mouse.  The

easiest is simply to drag a rectagle over it.  This is done by holding down

the left mouse button.  The second is by defining a arbitrary polygon

around whatever you want to select.  This is done by clicking the left

mouse button for each new polygon point.  This take a little longer, but is

the only way to select something that isn't a nice isolated block all by

itself such that a rectangle wouldn't grab other stuff you don't want in

the group.

Quote:

3). Click the move tool (if not already selected)

I just hit F7, which I have set up to issue the MOVE command.  Clicking

toolbar icons is way too slow, and uses the same mouse that you then want

to drag the object with, making it even slower.  The toolbar is only for

people who are used to other programs and think every program should have a

toolbar.  Every single toolbar action can be accomplished some other way,

and always faster and simpler.  Just shut off the silly toolbar, put the

pixels to better use, and operate Eagle faster.

Quote:

4). Right click on one of the grouped components and select Move Group

(which instantly moves the entire group to wherever your mouse pointer is

at) - hate that

You don't right click a particular component.  The right click applies

whatever the current action is to the group.  Once you get used to running

Eagle efficiently, you want the move to start immediately.  After all, you

just one way or another ran the MOVE command, so what is there to wait on

after selecting a group?  If you don't want it to move, don't run MOVE.  If

you do want it to move, then it not moving immediately would be really

annoying.

Quote:

1). In Windows if you want to select a bunch of icons on the desktop,

you simply click somewhere and drag the mouse to show the "rubber band"

and you encompass the icons you want to select.  When releasing the

mouse they are all selected.  I want to be able to do this in EAGLE.  I

constantly have to go and click the Group tool in the tool window.  I do

not see a shortcut key for this.

Like I said, ALT-E,G, or you can set up your own shortcut if you want.  I

find ALT-E,G fast enough and doable with one hand so I haven't been

motivated to set up a shortcut for it.  I have better things for my

function keys to be doing.

Quote:

2). After I placed my silk screen layer down, I wanted to change some

of the text sizes.

CHA SIZ , then click on whatever text you want to change to that

size.  If you want to change multiple text strings, you just click them in

succession.  Once CHANGE SIZE is active, it remains active until you

explicitly end it or issue another command.

Quote:

3). I used the scroll wheel on my mouse constantly to zoom in and out

of my design.  But I cannot get it to pan left, right, up or down.

You need to read the manual.  Hold down the center mouse button to pan.

Quote:

4). How to I make the text "bold" in the silk screen layer?

Eagle doesn't have a "bold" setting by itself.  Instead, it has a "ratio"

setting.  That is the ratio of character line thickness to the character

size.  A larger ratio makes the text more bold.  Yes, I think "ratio" is a

dumb name for this too because many things are a ratio and it doesn't say

anything about text.  Another thing to watch out for is that the ratio is

actually in percent, but nothing in the documentation tells you that.

Eagle is a great program, but many of the names were very poorly chosen,

and the documentation can sometimes confuse more than illuminate.  There

are definitely things you have to get used to, but once you do, you can

really fly thru operations.

--

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

Nelson Lopes wrote on Tue, 27 November 2012 23:52

For example, when you want to move a group of components, we have to do

the following steps:

Wow, you're doing this the most difficult way possible.  Learn to use the

command line, ALT keys, and shortcut keys, and things will go much faster.

Quote:

1). Select the group tool

Or just ALT-E,G.  It just happens that this can all be done with the left

hand, so the right hand can be on the mouse.

Quote:

2). Highlight all the components on the board

Note there are at least two ways to define a group with the mouse.  The

easiest is simply to drag a rectagle over it.  This is done by holding down

the left mouse button.  The second is by defining a arbitrary polygon

around whatever you want to select.  This is done by clicking the left

mouse button for each new polygon point.  This take a little longer, but is

the only way to select something that isn't a nice isolated block all by

itself such that a rectangle wouldn't grab other stuff you don't want in

the group.

Quote:

3). Click the move tool (if not already selected)

I just hit F7, which I have set up to issue the MOVE command.  Clicking

toolbar icons is way too slow, and uses the same mouse that you then want

to drag the object with, making it even slower.  The toolbar is only for

people who are used to other programs and think every program should have a

toolbar.  Every single toolbar action can be accomplished some other way,

and always faster and simpler.  Just shut off the silly toolbar, put the

pixels to better use, and operate Eagle faster.

Quote:

4). Right click on one of the grouped components and select Move Group

(which instantly moves the entire group to wherever your mouse pointer is

at) - hate that

You don't right click a particular component.  The right click applies

whatever the current action is to the group.  Once you get used to running

Eagle efficiently, you want the move to start immediately.  After all, you

just one way or another ran the MOVE command, so what is there to wait on

after selecting a group?  If you don't want it to move, don't run MOVE.  If

you do want it to move, then it not moving immediately would be really

annoying.

Quote:

1). In Windows if you want to select a bunch of icons on the desktop,

you simply click somewhere and drag the mouse to show the "rubber band"

and you encompass the icons you want to select.  When releasing the

mouse they are all selected.  I want to be able to do this in EAGLE.  I

constantly have to go and click the Group tool in the tool window.  I do

not see a shortcut key for this.

Like I said, ALT-E,G, or you can set up your own shortcut if you want.  I

find ALT-E,G fast enough and doable with one hand so I haven't been

motivated to set up a shortcut for it.  I have better things for my

function keys to be doing.

Quote:

2). After I placed my silk screen layer down, I wanted to change some

of the text sizes.

CHA SIZ , then click on whatever text you want to change to that

size.  If you want to change multiple text strings, you just click them in

succession.  Once CHANGE SIZE is active, it remains active until you

explicitly end it or issue another command.

Quote:

3). I used the scroll wheel on my mouse constantly to zoom in and out

of my design.  But I cannot get it to pan left, right, up or down.

You need to read the manual.  Hold down the center mouse button to pan.

Quote:

4). How to I make the text "bold" in the silk screen layer?

Eagle doesn't have a "bold" setting by itself.  Instead, it has a "ratio"

setting.  That is the ratio of character line thickness to the character

size.  A larger ratio makes the text more bold.  Yes, I think "ratio" is a

dumb name for this too because many things are a ratio and it doesn't say

anything about text.  Another thing to watch out for is that the ratio is

actually in percent, but nothing in the documentation tells you that.

Eagle is a great program, but many of the names were very poorly chosen,

and the documentation can sometimes confuse more than illuminate.  There

are definitely things you have to get used to, but once you do, you can

really fly thru operations.

--

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