Not using Eagle Schematic Capture

On 04/25/08 16:45, Keith wrote:

Hi,

 

I use Mentor Graphics Design Capture as my schematic entry package.  I

am in the process of finishing a ULP to import the netlist format to

place parts and import the nets (will probably finish today).

 

Do I have to create a schematic symbol in Eagle for each part in my

library even though I'm not using Eagle's schematic entry?

If you're not useng EAGLE's schematic capture, then you don't

have to create schematic symbols. You can use just the packages.

If this is the case, then this is a major short-coming of the software.

I've used probably 6 different PCB CAD packages and I've never seen

anything quite like the arrangement of your library database.  Quite

frankly, the hierarchy needs to be changed.

Why would that be?

Klaus Schmidinger

--

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Klaus Schmidinger                       Phone: +49-8635-6989-10

CadSoft Computer GmbH                   Fax:   +49-8635-6989-40

Hofmark 2                               Email:   kls@cadsoft.de

D-84568 Pleiskirchen, Germany           URL:     www.cadsoft.de

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On 2008/Apr/25 11:04 AM, in article fusrt6$7un$1@cheetah.cadsoft.de, "Klaus

Schmidinger" <Klaus.Schmidinger@cadsoft.de> wrote:

On 04/25/08 16:45, Keith wrote:

Hi,

 

I use Mentor Graphics Design Capture as my schematic entry package.  I

am in the process of finishing a ULP to import the netlist format to

place parts and import the nets (will probably finish today).

 

Do I have to create a schematic symbol in Eagle for each part in my

library even though I'm not using Eagle's schematic entry?

 

If you're not useng EAGLE's schematic capture, then you don't

have to create schematic symbols. You can use just the packages.

Hello Keith,

We have a tool to already import a PADS netlist into the EAGLE BRD editor.

You can find it at www.eagletoolkit.com if you run into problems with your

attempt.  There is a cost to it but it is also supported.  It doesn't take

much debugging to make up the $100US cost of the tool.

As part of that tool you can also export PADS netlist and PADS ECO file from

EAGLE SCH editor.  But these may be of no use to you.

If this is the case, then this is a major short-coming of the software.

I've used probably 6 different PCB CAD packages and I've never seen

anything quite like the arrangement of your library database.  Quite

frankly, the hierarchy needs to be changed.

 

Why would that be?

I think think the point here, please correct me Keith if I'm off base, is

that in order to add something to the schematic you have to have a device

(symbol + footprint + mapping between them).  But strictly speaking, you

only need the symbol (and not the footprint and mapping) to design a

schematic.  So if you want to use EAGLE as the schematic editor only (and

export the netlist as per the EET :: Pads Interface for instance) then you

are actually forced to do some work that is really part of the PCB and will

just be duplicated by the external PCB design file.

Keith, one way around this, which is a bit of a kludge, is what we do

internally.  Create a series of dummy packages that you can use for this

very purpose.  Given you don't care about what the actual footprint looks

like this works OK.  You still need to do the pin mapping but you'd need

that anyways for the netlist.

The downside is that all of the footprints have to be in the same library as

all of the symbols.  This is another place where my suggestion to allow a

device to use a footprint from an external library is of benefit--you don't

have to have this list of dummy footprints in every library that you create.

I hope this helps explain a bit Keith and perhaps allows you to use EAGLE in

a bit more efficient way.

James.

--

James Morrison

www.eagletoolkit.com

EAGLE Design Expert

North American Online EAGLE Dealer

EAGLE Enterprise Toolkit