MOVING SMD PADS

Question

I'm new at Eagle and I am trying to make my first SMD footprint. I have the grid set at 1 mm alt at .05. When I try to put the first pad at 0,1.2 I find that the displayed coordinates are relative to where the CURSOR is in the pad, not the pad itself. I seems like I need one of two things to position the pads accurately: 1: be able to select the pad at dead center or 2: be able to let the coordinates reflect the center of the pad instead of the cursor position.

I guess my question to the community is, how do you place pads accurately in Eagle 7.5?

autodeskguest · Accepted Answer

On 31/01/2016 3:10 p.m., Picky Biker wrote:

I'm new at Eagle and I am trying to make my first SMD footprint. I have
the grid set at 1 mm alt at .05. When I try to put the first pad at
0,1.2 I find that the displayed coordinates are relative to where the
CURSOR is in the pad, not the pad itself. I seems like I need one of two
things to position the pads accurately: 1: be able to select the pad at
dead center or 2: be able to let the coordinates reflect the center of
the pad instead of the cursor position.

I guess my question to the community is, how do you place pads
accurately in Eagle 7.5?

When placing an SMD in the package editor, the pad will try to snap to

the grid point closest to the cursor.

To place the smd at a specific place, ignoring the grid, simply enter

the coordinates into the command line.

For your case you would select the smd icon and then with the smd

foating with the cursor enter into the into the command line (0 1.2)

. The smd will be placed with its origin at x=0 y=1.2mm. After

that you can rotate and change its size if they have not been set up

before hand.

All that entering into the command line is a pain when there are many

pads to do that are spaced horizontally or vertically with regular

spacing so you can use the grid to do the hard work and avoid the maths.

We let Eagle do the hard work for us and use a feature of the grid.

No matter where an object is, if you change the grid and copy or move

the object it will step the distance of the new grid. Its like an

invisible grid belonging only to that object.

Lets say an imaginary component needs a horizontal row of six pads

1.73mm apart and above the origin 1.57mm and symmetrically left and

right of the origin You will have detected that the maths will be doable

but repetitious.

The method works as follows:

Set the grid to 1.57mm

Place a smd at x=0 y=1.57 which is easily done as there is a grid to

snap it to. No need to use the command line and it sits at the correct

height above the origin.

Change the grid to 0.865mm (half our 1.73mm spacing) this is our only maths.

Move the smd one step left.

Change the grid to 1.73mm

Move the smd two steps left (This is the left most smd we need)

Copy this smd to the right five times to attain the needed row of six

smd spaced at 1.73mm

job done

HTH

Warren

MOVING SMD PADS

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