initial automatic component placement grid is wrong/how to change it

On 08/30/2014 03:54 PM, peter wrote:

I'm using Eagle Pro 6.6.

 

I noticed a behaviour that has me very frustrated and I can't find a way

to fix it.

 

If I create a Schematic with say 64 LED's (SMD devices to created with a

grid on 0.1mm in the library)

 

And wire them up appropriately in the schematic.

 

then switch to the PCB view, the 64 LED's are automatically placed on

the board outside of the default PCB area, but they are placed in a n

array  pattern that i have no control over, and that seems to be

slightly off when I then set the PB grid to 0.1mm for placement...

 

from row to row of LED's they are slightly misaligned when i pick them

up to place them they don't line up correctly with LED's that were

dropped in the array on the line above, or to the right...

 

So I am having a devil of a job laying out my final array or LED's

according to an exact alignment as the components are off some fraction

of my grid that I can't adjust for (even with the fine grid set very

fine), and anyway that is now extremely time consuming (imaging 1000

LED's that all need to be manually aligned rather than snapping to an

exact grid.

 

Is there a fix for this initial automatic grid when initially creating a

PCB to work on ?

 

Any help or ULP's to fix this would be appreciated...

 

I even took a look at editing the .brd XML file and while is looks

possible it is too daunting of a task and possibly more manual and

probably error prone.

To clarify, the schematic is drawn with the standard 0.1" grid, but when

creating the board a default 0.05" grid is used to drop all of my

componenets onto in an array to the side of the default PCB area, but

row to row and column to column placements are off once the placement

grid is set to my 1mm grid by fractions of a mm but its enoght o make

final placement of the components impossible without setting a

ridiculously fine alternate grid setting.

there must be a way to make eagle default to a metric grid on the PCB

layer before it has already dropped all my components on there for me to

then place.

AARGH..

Am 31.08.2014 um 01:21 schrieb peter:

On 08/30/2014 03:54 PM, peter wrote:

I'm using Eagle Pro 6.6.

 

I noticed a behaviour that has me very frustrated and I can't find a way

to fix it.

 

If I create a Schematic with say 64 LED's (SMD devices to created with a

grid on 0.1mm in the library)

 

And wire them up appropriately in the schematic.

 

then switch to the PCB view, the 64 LED's are automatically placed on

the board outside of the default PCB area, but they are placed in a n

array  pattern that i have no control over, and that seems to be

slightly off when I then set the PB grid to 0.1mm for placement...

 

from row to row of LED's they are slightly misaligned when i pick them

up to place them they don't line up correctly with LED's that were

dropped in the array on the line above, or to the right...

 

So I am having a devil of a job laying out my final array or LED's

according to an exact alignment as the components are off some fraction

of my grid that I can't adjust for (even with the fine grid set very

fine), and anyway that is now extremely time consuming (imaging 1000

LED's that all need to be manually aligned rather than snapping to an

exact grid.

 

Is there a fix for this initial automatic grid when initially creating a

PCB to work on ?

 

Any help or ULP's to fix this would be appreciated...

 

I even took a look at editing the .brd XML file and while is looks

possible it is too daunting of a task and possibly more manual and

probably error prone.

 

To clarify, the schematic is drawn with the standard 0.1" grid, but when

creating the board a default 0.05" grid is used to drop all of my

componenets onto in an array to the side of the default PCB area, but

row to row and column to column placements are off once the placement

grid is set to my 1mm grid by fractions of a mm but its enoght o make

final placement of the components impossible without setting a

ridiculously fine alternate grid setting.

 

there must be a way to make eagle default to a metric grid on the PCB

layer before it has already dropped all my components on there for me to

then place.

 

AARGH..

Well inch is not millimetres

So if you use devices with fractions of millimetres spacing why don't

you set the grid appropriate? You can set it to microns, mils, inch and

millimetres and if you want a default setting you can do that in the

eagle.scr file.

Help grid.

--

Mit freundlichen Grüßen / With best regards

Joern Paschedag

On 08/30/2014 10:45 PM, Joern Paschedag wrote:

Am 31.08.2014 um 01:21 schrieb peter:

On 08/30/2014 03:54 PM, peter wrote:

I'm using Eagle Pro 6.6.

 

I noticed a behaviour that has me very frustrated and I can't find a way

to fix it.

 

If I create a Schematic with say 64 LED's (SMD devices to created with a

grid on 0.1mm in the library)

 

And wire them up appropriately in the schematic.

 

then switch to the PCB view, the 64 LED's are automatically placed on

the board outside of the default PCB area, but they are placed in a n

array  pattern that i have no control over, and that seems to be

slightly off when I then set the PB grid to 0.1mm for placement...

 

from row to row of LED's they are slightly misaligned when i pick them

up to place them they don't line up correctly with LED's that were

dropped in the array on the line above, or to the right...

 

So I am having a devil of a job laying out my final array or LED's

according to an exact alignment as the components are off some fraction

of my grid that I can't adjust for (even with the fine grid set very

fine), and anyway that is now extremely time consuming (imaging 1000

LED's that all need to be manually aligned rather than snapping to an

exact grid.

 

Is there a fix for this initial automatic grid when initially creating a

PCB to work on ?

 

Any help or ULP's to fix this would be appreciated...

 

I even took a look at editing the .brd XML file and while is looks

possible it is too daunting of a task and possibly more manual and

probably error prone.

 

To clarify, the schematic is drawn with the standard 0.1" grid, but when

creating the board a default 0.05" grid is used to drop all of my

componenets onto in an array to the side of the default PCB area, but

row to row and column to column placements are off once the placement

grid is set to my 1mm grid by fractions of a mm but its enoght o make

final placement of the components impossible without setting a

ridiculously fine alternate grid setting.

 

there must be a way to make eagle default to a metric grid on the PCB

layer before it has already dropped all my components on there for me to

then place.

 

AARGH..

 

Well inch is not millimetres

So if you use devices with fractions of millimetres spacing why don't

you set the grid appropriate? You can set it to microns, mils, inch and

millimetres and if you want a default setting you can do that in the

eagle.scr file.

Help grid.

 

 

It is difficult to explain .. but try it and you'll see... build a

simple schematic with say 40 SMD LED's (use an LED designed on a mm

based grid) and then move to a board to start laying the PCB..

now if you have a default eagle.scr file it will have placed those

components in a board with a default 0.1" grid and will have dropped

them in an array (based on that 0.1" grid) to the side of the board...

now if you change the grid to the mm grid that is best for the LED's you

will note that as you try to pick up and place them in a mm based grid,

the LED's from the first row will not align perfectly with the LED's

from the second row, or the third row... etc... even with very very fine

alternate grid spacing its all but impossible to  get them to align

perfectly (and this defeats the purpose of having a grid anyway, since

that is supposed to help with rapid aligned placement of devices)

peter wrote on Mon, 01 September 2014 04:56

It is difficult to explain

Actually it's quite clear what Eagle is doing.  The part that makes no

sense is why this should be a problem.

Quote:

build a simple schematic with say 40 SMD LED's (use an LED designed on

a mm based grid) and then move to a board to start laying the PCB..  now

if you have a default eagle.scr file it will have placed those components

in a board with a default 0.1" grid and will have dropped

them in an array (based on that 0.1" grid) to the side of the board...

OK

Quote:

now if you change the grid to the mm grid that is best for the LED's

you will note that as you try to pick up and place them in a mm based

grid, the LED's from the first row will not align perfectly with the

LED's

This is what makes no sense for at least three obvious reasons.

First, by "pick up" it seems you are trying to drag the parts onto the

board individually.  Clearly you want to make a script to place a array of

40 parts.

Second, even for individual parts, dragging them from off the board doesn't

make sense.  It is slow and tedius because it requires more mouse usage,

you have to zoom back to see the board and the whole off-board holding area

for the parts, and it can be quite difficult to find a small part in the

holding area.  With the MOVE command, you can keep the view zoomed into the

small area of the board you are currently working on, you enter the

designator directly without having to hunt for the part, and the original

grid doesn't matter.  The part just appears at the cursor from "someplace".

You don't need to know nor care where that someplace is.  Since this is

done a lot during placement, I have F12 set up for 'ratsnest; move'.  Note

no semicolon after MOVE.  That doesn't end the command so that I can type

the part designator parameter.  To place a part, I hit F12 type the

designator, and hit ENTER.  Poof, the part appears at the cursor much

faster than someone go over to the part holding area hunt around for it and

drag it back to where they're working, probably requiring some more panning

and zooming.

Third, even if you want to do it the slow and tedius way, CTRL lets you

pick up the part at its origin regardless how it might be snapped to the

grid.  Didn't you read the help on MOVE at all!!?

You should at least learn the tool before complaining about it.

--

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

peter wrote on Mon, 01 September 2014 04:56

It is difficult to explain

Actually it's quite clear what Eagle is doing.  The part that makes no

sense is why this should be a problem.

Quote:

build a simple schematic with say 40 SMD LED's (use an LED designed on

a mm based grid) and then move to a board to start laying the PCB..  now

if you have a default eagle.scr file it will have placed those components

in a board with a default 0.1" grid and will have dropped

them in an array (based on that 0.1" grid) to the side of the board...

OK

Quote:

now if you change the grid to the mm grid that is best for the LED's

you will note that as you try to pick up and place them in a mm based

grid, the LED's from the first row will not align perfectly with the

LED's

This is what makes no sense for at least three obvious reasons.

First, by "pick up" it seems you are trying to drag the parts onto the

board individually.  Clearly you want to make a script to place a array of

40 parts.

Second, even for individual parts, dragging them from off the board doesn't

make sense.  It is slow and tedius because it requires more mouse usage,

you have to zoom back to see the board and the whole off-board holding area

for the parts, and it can be quite difficult to find a small part in the

holding area.  With the MOVE command, you can keep the view zoomed into the

small area of the board you are currently working on, you enter the

designator directly without having to hunt for the part, and the original

grid doesn't matter.  The part just appears at the cursor from "someplace".

You don't need to know nor care where that someplace is.  Since this is

done a lot during placement, I have F12 set up for 'ratsnest; move'.  Note

no semicolon after MOVE.  That doesn't end the command so that I can type

the part designator parameter.  To place a part, I hit F12 type the

designator, and hit ENTER.  Poof, the part appears at the cursor much

faster than someone go over to the part holding area hunt around for it and

drag it back to where they're working, probably requiring some more panning

and zooming.

Third, even if you want to do it the slow and tedius way, CTRL lets you

pick up the part at its origin regardless how it might be snapped to the

grid.  Didn't you read the help on MOVE at all!!?

You should at least learn the tool before complaining about it.

--

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