beginner help with eagle

Good afternoon, Chris,

David, Joern and Rob all provide good suggestion on how to find the

errors.  I know that Joern and Rob have been around Eagle pretty much

since the oceans formed.  Well... maybe not quite//that long.

The command you seek is the "Ripup" command.  When a trace is deleted,

the board editor is trying to delete the entire signal, which can only

be done in the schematic in order to maintain consistency between the

schematic and the board.  By doing a ripup, the board editor will leave

what's called an air wire (usually a thin yellow line), which is an

indicator that routing is incomplete.  The air wire will have the same

end points as the trace that was ripped up.

After several ripups, you may find that the air wire meanders where you

don't want to place a new trace.  The mesh of air wires can be

recalculate with the "Ratsnest" command.  Bear in mind that after a

Ratsnet, the air wires will be generated between an unrouted pad and the

nearest wire endpoint that's on the same net as the pad.  The shortest

distance route may not be the proper or optima path.  A case in point is

when implementing a star ground - where the ground from each subsection

of your circuit are all routed to the same via.

There are icons for each of these commands, the actual image for which

may vary across versions of Eagle.

HTH,

    - Chuck

On 2/23/19 20:13, Chris Harrison wrote:

I just started a board using eagle for the first time.

I am stuck, can't delete some vias and two overlapping tracks.

I spent three days reading tutorials and I searched everywhere I cannot find a solution to this problem.

I have uploaded some pictures.

 

 

The areas highlighted are the ones I am concerned with.

Thanks for your help.

 

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Thank you for responding.

For the record I am using v8.2.

I got two more unneeded vias. The only way I got rid of them was to move the files from my desktop to my laptop,

only then did the ripup and ratsnest commands work.

In the situation (above picture), I found a better way to route the track without using two vias.

The only way to get the track routed where I wanted was to move the vias outside of the dimension lines and proceed.

Now I can't delete the vias  (until I move the files over to the laptop as mentioned above).

I am not new to pcb design, just new to eagle. I have tried eagle before (a few years back) and gave up.

I simply don't have two weeks to create a new board. There are many posts on the internet regarding this problem.

I know that the ripup and ratsnest commands are supposed to take care of this but they do not always work.

I don't know how many times I have started my design over just to eliminate these bugs.

There are two problems I see with eagle that will prevent me from using it:

1. You cannot route a trace to a very small TQFP-100 with a mouse. IT'S IMPOSSIBLE!

You CANNOT move a component, track or whatever a very small distance with the mouse

and I don't drink coffee or consume any caffeine!!

I have always used the arrow keys on the keyboard in the past (with the very old Protel cad)

simply pressing M (for move) and T for track.

It's very easy to move the item this way and extremely precise.

Why can't this simple command be implemented in eagle?

In just simple track routing, the process is extremely difficult.The very end of the track straying to the left or right

kind of like this:

This really slows the very simple process of routing. Using the arrows and the enter key would be

a million times faster and more precise. I do eventually get it right the hard way.

2. The program thinks too much for itself and does not let the user do the thinking.

There should be an override or unlock feature.

In the very old Protel program you can move pins very easily in any component just by unlocking the component.

Sometimes in order to get a thin track between two pins I have had  to change the padstack size on the two pins

where the track runs between. This is perfectly fine, but almost impossible and a great deal of trouble in eagle.

I want to route a trace my way. I do not want the program to decide for me therefore ending up with unnecessary vias.

A few times I have had to manipulate the eagle schematic in a very unusual way just to satisfy the pcb routing.

Sure the program tries to route the track to the closest position, but that position might be on another layer which would require one or more vias.

In trying to keep the costs down and my board as small as possible there is simply not enough clearance for all these extra vias.

I don't want to sound unappreciative for the help you have offered me.

What I look for in any program is a lot less bells and whistles and more easy & basic functions that work well.

Unfortunately I just don't see that in Eagle.

Am 01.03.2019 um 13:16 schrieb Chris Harrison:

Thank you for responding.

 

For the record I am using v8.2.

 

SNIP

There are two problems I see with eagle that will prevent me from using it:

 

1. You cannot route a trace to a very small TQFP-100 with a mouse. IT'S IMPOSSIBLE!

Sorry, but you talk rubbish. To connect to a TQFP-100 is usual

business. Perhaps you set your grid to a proper value, let's say about

0.25mm you can route those contacts with warp speed.

You CANNOT move a component, track or whatever a very small distance with the mouse

and I don't drink coffee or consume any caffeine!!

Same thing...

I have always used the arrow keys on the keyboard in the past simply pressing M (for move) and T for track.

It's very easy to move the item this way and extremely precise.

Why can't this simple command be implemented in eagle?

In just simple track routing, the process is extremely difficult.The very end of the track straying to the left or right

Ask AD

Although key use was never possible before.

SNIP

In the very old Protel program you can move pins very easily in any component just by unlocking the component.

Well then, use Protel.

It is imho childish to compare programs against each other. Either learn

how to proper use your program or get a different program as easy as that.

--

Mit freundlichen Grüßen / With best regards

Joern Paschedag

What I look for in any program is a lot less bells and whistles and more easy & basic functions that work well.

Unfortunately I just don't see that in Eagle.

Hi Chris,

Thank you for posting your question as it prompted the community to provide some really detailed and helpful answers, that has actually helped in my understanding of Eagle PCB. I've used the free version of Eagle for many years, limited in board area and layers, but for occasional home use I really cannot fault it....because it is free; I haven't paid anyone anything to use it, Cadsoft and Autocad have done all that work themselves, so I really can live with the occasional glitch or awkward process.

Out of interest do you etch the boards yourself? I'd be most interested to hear how you make them and see some photos of the finished articles.

Rod

What I look for in any program is a lot less bells and whistles and more easy & basic functions that work well.

Unfortunately I just don't see that in Eagle.

Hi Chris,

Thank you for posting your question as it prompted the community to provide some really detailed and helpful answers, that has actually helped in my understanding of Eagle PCB. I've used the free version of Eagle for many years, limited in board area and layers, but for occasional home use I really cannot fault it....because it is free; I haven't paid anyone anything to use it, Cadsoft and Autocad have done all that work themselves, so I really can live with the occasional glitch or awkward process.

Out of interest do you etch the boards yourself? I'd be most interested to hear how you make them and see some photos of the finished articles.

Rod