Actions
Forum Thread Details
  • Replies 12 replies
  • Subscribers 177 subscribers
  • Views 6088 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Related

Auto-place, or at least "semi-automatic"

autodeskguest

Hello,

 

In the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow first of all a major

thank-you to Cadsoft for introducing a hierarchical schematic sheet

structure. This will hopefully bring Eagle more into the mainstream and

it was "the" reason why I bought V7 (I was a V4 hold-out).

 

Since Eagle does not have an auto-place routine and Jorge Garcia said in

another forum that there aren't any really suitable algorithms for that

I have a suggestion for a simpler fix:

 

When switching to board view for the first time let Eagle scatter the

components the same way they are on the schematic, with multiple pages

in sub-groups. It's ok if that occupies a large area because people will

then be able to concentrate on one stage at a time, drag that over as a

group and arrange the parts as need. Then the next cluster. And so on.

 

Right now Eagle just plops the parts down in a willy-nilly fashion. It

looks like neat rows but the designators are all mixed up, the ratsnest

is a mess. This lengthens the placement job because one has to search

for many parts.

 

Also, I strongly suggest to let the "lesser versions" such as Eagle

Standard pre-group clusters outside the board area just to get a grasp

of what belongs together. Right now it refuses with an error message

"objects outside allowed board area". You cannot move one little thing

unless you move it into the board area. You can't even move it back out

if you grabbed the wrong part. Just let people arrange parts outside the

board area wherever they want but without routing permission. That will

uphold the license limitations because they can only route after the

affected parts have been moved inside the board area.

 

--

Regards, Joerg

 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

 

  • in reply to autodeskguest

    warrenbrayshaw wrote:

    On 27/11/2014 2:02 p.m., Joerg wrote:

     

     

    .........Also, I strongly suggest to let the "lesser versions" such as

    Eagle

    Standard pre-group clusters outside the board area just to get a grasp

    of what belongs together. Right now it refuses with an error message

    "objects outside allowed board area". You cannot move one little thing

    unless you move it into the board area. You can't even move it back out

    if you grabbed the wrong part.

     

    (1) If you pick up a part and realise it is the wrong part before

    dropping it onto the board simply hit ESC and the move command will be

    cancelled and the part will go back into the heap.

     

    (2) If you have just dropped it onto the board, Undo (CTL-Z) will put it

    back into the heap. If its a few actions back you can select from the

    undo list and undo everything back to that move that took the part out

    of the heap and then re-do everything after that point manually again.

     

     

    Ok, but that method would be rather clunky.

     

     

    (3) I created a ULP a while back (for these "lesser versions") that lets

    you remove a single element, automatically placing it below and left

    aligned with the heap. If there is no heap then it is placed left

    aligned with the origin and below it.  It works well but needs a review.

    I'll endeavour to upload it before Christmas(this Christmas) so keep an

    eye out for it.

     

     

    Thanks, I will keep an eye out. If it can drop it back outside the board

    that would be great.

     

    --

    Regards, Joerg

     

    http://www.analogconsultants.com/

     

  • in reply to autodeskguest

    On 2014-11-28 22:05:23 +0000, Olin Lathrop said:

     

    But you never go "finding" components out in the Ort Cloud.  You bring them

    in as necessary to where you are currently working on placement.  When you

    reference a component, it attaches to the mouse cursor.  It doesn't matter

    at all where it was before that.  You don't need to know, in fact don't

    want to know, where it came from.

     

    That's exactly what I do when placing specific components or

    rearranging things. In fact, this is the fastest way to "find" a

    component in a layout or schematic even if it's been routed since

    Eagle's find function is so anemic.  "mov r3" and it snaps and you can

    see where it came from while zooming out. Escape cancels the move and

    puts the component back where it was.

     

    You seem to be imagining picking thru the cloud of components looking for

    the right one visually.  That would be very tedious and is not how it's

    done.  Get some experience with Eagle and learn to use it well before

    asking for new features.

     

    I'm not the original poster, but my experience with Eagle spans more

    than a decade. Eagle needs better grouping and searching. I don't know

    that a semiautomatic placer will be super helpful but the scripting

    function might be able to help considerably since I think all the info

    is there.

     

    One thing I do is to "pre-place" components by grouping them off-board.

    I tend to do it similar to what you've described, building approximate

    placement subcicuits then grouping and moving the entire lot to their

    destination. A preplacement autoassist wouldn't be a bad thing but

    again, something probably able to be done in a ULP/SCR combo.

     

    Quote:

    Auto-placement algorithms don't really work with current

    technology.

     

    I can't find any rational explanation for why you'd state such a thing.

    Higher density components have the same kind of placement requirements

    of your typical passives and simple active components. It's typically

    these smaller components which give the most placement trouble anyway

    since there's so many of them.

     

    -A.