How to change point of view on PCB layout?

Hello again,

Yes now i m using "display" command to on or off the layers, its cool but also i would like to assign a key or a button to do that for me. And also i found a rendering program called zofzPCB for windows now i am using this to 3D view. But it takes many effort and also i could not see my 3D components there. I ll find an application for directly rendering from .brd format for Windows. I also used show command but my problem is not with the tool i could not see the difference between highlighted and not highlighted nets. It is about the color contrast or something. I believe i have to get used to it.

Thank you Rachael for your help. Have a good day.

I think I am close to this topic if I ask, Why can I not find some handy ULP files that will

show_top_view_only.ulp and show_bot_view_only.ulp?

I understand that *real* bottom view (mirrored) can't happen, but just switching the

layers for top vs bottom is so tedious!

Maybe I am missing something?

Thanks!

Hi, you don't need to use ULP to do this just two script files with appropriate DISPLAY commands to turn on/off the layers you want to view. You could use ULP's if you wished, create a string containing the appropriate DISPLAY commands and pass it as a parameter to exit().

Edit: Corrected LAYER to DISPLAY.

Following on from my previous post, I quickly knocked up a ULP to do this. It's VERY un-polished at the moment as I only spent a few minutes on it but it works. If I finish it off and/or add more functionality I will try and update it on here.

Following on from my previous post, I quickly knocked up a ULP to do this. It's VERY un-polished at the moment as I only spent a few minutes on it but it works. If I finish it off and/or add more functionality I will try and update it on here.

You most certainly DO need to be able to view the bottom. When you are looking at a stuffed PCB on your desk and want to make some changes to the bottom (say to fine tune some physical enclosure clearances) you want to see the same view as the PCB you are working with, not some sort of mirror image.  This should be a fundamental option in Eagle--why would it not be included?  Several low-end packages are beginning to surpass Eagle's feature set.

I totally agree with Norm, This should be a feature included in Eagle. When you have to work on your prototype, or run some tests, often you need to follow traces on the board you physically had in your hands, You often need to know where you will put the oscilloscope probe, and sometime it's on the top face, sometime it on the bottom face...bad luck ! Same apply if you need to change a part, solder a wire etc...

Some argue that I should print the bottom view with the mirror option...

- First, I already though about that, no need to tell me...

- Second, I wonder how they manage to do a search, how they highlight a net, or display or hide a layer on a paper sheet ! (I tried to click with my pen, it doesn't work !)

- Third, with a 6 layers broad with power plane, printing is not really an option, unless if you wish waste your toner and print black sheet !

Seriously, I know that the main purpose of Eagle is to design a board... Not having this feature during the design process is not a big deal. But when a board is designed, the job is not finished yet. You have to test it, to do some rework before you go back on the design process, for correcting the prototype. But for that you need this feature, simply because you have to do it in the real world, with a real board in your hand !

Unfortunately, there is not such feature so...each time I have to do that part of the job, I forget how I like Eagle....

Kikoun

I don't think anybody would disagree that it's a useful feature, it's been asked for many times but EAGLE isn't the only package that doesn't allow this, I also use some stupidly expensive layout tools which don't offer this either.... I've not tried KiCAD or similar, I assume this is one of the ones people are referring to when they claim low-end packages are surpassing EAGLE. Well KiCAD did get a lot of engineering input from CERN I believe so it's not surprising it's come on a long way, hopefully the rapid rise of a completely open source tool will help focus CadSoft onto delivering features people really need more quickly.