Methods of Viewing Nets

On 8/07/2016 4:16 a.m., Tom Penick wrote:

I have been using Eagle for a few months now after previously using Pads and the biggest drawback seems to be the inability to color code the nets.  This makes intelligent component placement and the drawing of pour areas a lot more tedious than those operations need to be.  I did read the tip about using the RATSNEST command to hide/show certain nets and that helps somewhat prior to routing.   But for drawing the pour areas which I normally do after routing, I have resorted to sticking pieces of tape to the computer screen while the SHOW command is highlights the net of interest to mark the boundaries of where I want to draw the pour.  Or course once I begin drawing the pour the highlighted net disappears but the little pieces of tape remain and I can draw the pour using the pieces of tape as a guide.  I would just like to know if there is a more sensible way to do this in Eagle.

 

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Hi

To do away with sticking tape on your monitor.

Create a user defined layer and place construction lines in that layer

to guide your placement of polygon outlines. You will still have the

issue with disappearing shown items though as you create the

construction lines.

HTH

Warren

On 07/07/16 20:41, warrenbrayshaw wrote:

 

Create a user defined layer and place construction lines in that layer

to guide your placement of polygon outlines. You will still have the

issue with disappearing shown items though as you create the

construction lines.

I'm not quite sure how that fixes anything. The OP's problem is that,

while he can highlight the net he's interested in, the moment he starts

to trace around it the highlighting disappears. Use of any tool switches

off the "show". So he can't trace it.

One thought that occurred to me just now - do a "show" to get the

highlight, then use a screen capture tool to capture an image. Place

this on an image viewer alongside the Eagle window as a guide. You

should be able to draw the polygon outline by reference to the patterns

of pads and vias around the highlight on the image.

But I'd still definitely vote for a "persistent" option to make the

highlight remain until the next use of SHOW (or possibly some few other

tools like RATSNEST)

Rob Pearce wrote on Fri, 08 July 2016 08:57

On 07/07/16 20:41, warrenbrayshaw wrote:

 

Create a user defined layer and place construction lines in that

layer

to guide your placement of polygon outlines. You will still have

the

issue with disappearing shown items though as you create the

construction lines.

 

I'm not quite sure how that fixes anything. The OP's problem is that,

while he can highlight the net he's interested in, the moment he

starts

to trace around it the highlighting disappears. Use of any tool

switches

off the "show". So he can't trace it.

The idea is to negate the need for "sticking pieces of tape to the computer

screen"

I did comment that there was still an issue with loosing the highlighted

/shown nets.

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The file, copy-layer-to any-layer.ulp, was not in my installation nor on the cadsoftusa web site.  It did find the text of the .ulp online and created a file for it.  This produced version 1.5 of the .ulp.  It just asks me to select a valid layer, no matter what layer I choose.  I don't know what it takes to make a layer valid.  It appears that this .ulp is going to copy wires and/or polygons.  In my usage, the polygon has not yet been created and some of the pads of interest in the net will not have any wires so I'm not sure how much help this is going to be.

The file, copy-layer-to any-layer.ulp, was not in my installation nor on the cadsoftusa web site.  It did find the text of the .ulp online and created a file for it.  This produced version 1.5 of the .ulp.  It just asks me to select a valid layer, no matter what layer I choose.  I don't know what it takes to make a layer valid.  It appears that this .ulp is going to copy wires and/or polygons.  In my usage, the polygon has not yet been created and some of the pads of interest in the net will not have any wires so I'm not sure how much help this is going to be.