Copying the layout of identical channels

Jeffrey L Rothman wrote:

I am designing an amplifier board with four identical channels. Is there a

way to copy the layout of the first channel so I don't have to repeat the

whole parts placement process four times?

 

Thank you.

 

Jeff

 

 

From a post in January this year

> As I posted elsewhere in this thread, here's my complete guide on how to

> duplicate an area of a layout and retain back/forth association to the

> schematic.

>

> Some others have reported that this doesn't work.  That is, they run the ERC

> and see a list of errors that includes nets that don't simply have the 1 or

> 2 or 3 appended to the end.  In a recent application of the procedure below,

> I ran into this same error.  There were two things that caused this error:

>

> 1. I pasted a section of my schematic so that it fell outside the valid

> screen area.  It pasted visually, but I wasn't able to move anything again.

> I'd get an error about trying to work outside the valid range.  To get

> around this, I set my grid at 1.00 inch and made it visible.  Then I zoomed

> all the way out and could see the valid paste area.  I made sure my pastes

> all fell inside this window.

>

> 2. I had created (and was trying to copy) nets in my layout that were not in

> my schematic.  Specifically, I have a ground ring around the perimeter of my

> board that I drew in at the layout level.  I was planning on connecting it

> to PE (and my schematic) later.  This made the schematic and layout not

> technically synchronized, even though the ERC reported no inconstancies.  To

> get around this, I renamed the nets to what they were going to ultimately

> end up as: PE.  I also tried naming them GND just to temporarily tie them to

> a know net.  Both of these solutions worked.

>

>

> The Procedure:

> -

> Sometimes circuit boards will have duplicate sections of schematic that you

> want to layout identically.  You could do this by laying out each section

> separately, but for large or complex layouts this would be very time

> consuming.  Eagle does not have a function that allows you to directly

> duplicate your layouts, so you have to use this workaround:

>

> 1. Create the schematic for the section you want to duplicate.  You can have

> additional schematic done at that time too if you like.

> 2. Create the layout for that section.  You can have additional layout done

> at that time if you like.

2 (a) Often a critical step is to run a renumber ULP so that you close any

holes in the component name sequence that may have arisen during editing.

> 3. Close the layout so that you only have the schematic open.

> 4. Use the window selection tool to surround the section of schematic you

> want to duplicate in the layout.

> 5. Use the scissors tool to copy the selection to the buffer.

> 6. Use the dropdown EDIT: PASTE to finish the copy operation.

> 7. Save the schematic and close it.

> 8. Open the layout. Click OK to acknowledge the warning about the schematic

> and board not being consistent. Close the schematic that opened when you

> opened the layout so that you only have the layout open.

> 9. Do the same window select, scissors, paste operation on the layout.  YOU

> MUST COPY EXACTLY THE SAME ITEMS AS YOU DID IN THE SCHEMATIC.  THIS INCLUDES

> COMPONENTS AND NETS.

> 10. Save the layout and open the schematic.  You should have both the

> schematic and layout open at this point.

> 11. In the layout, run ERC and you'll get a long list of nets that don't

> match.  Don't worry: you only have to fix each net once.  This is usually

> only 5 or 6 nets to fix the whole list.

> 12. The original section of layout will have nets named GND.  The new

> section will have them named GND1.  The original section of the schematic

> will have the nets named GND.  The new section will also have them named

> GND.  The task here is to rename the net GND1 to GND in the layout.

> 13. Type "show GND1" in the command line.  This will highlight GND1.

> 14. Use the name tool (R2 Icon) to change the name GND1 to GND.  If

> prompted, the rename applies to all nets.

> 15. If you run ERC again, you'll find that all of the GND/GND1 errors are

> gone.  Redo this renaming process a few more times for the remaining name1

> nets and you're done.

>

> Additional note: If you don't have any airwires for the net you're trying to

> rename then you'll have to create one using the line tool and the name tool:

> Create a line.  Rename that line using the R2 tool to the net name you need

> to rename (e.g. GND1).  This will connect the line to the pad that was

> previously un-airwired.  Now you can rename the airwire or line to the right

> name (e.g. GND) to fix that net.

> -

>

cheers

David

Jeffrey L Rothman wrote:

I am designing an amplifier board with four identical channels. Is there a

way to copy the layout of the first channel so I don't have to repeat the

whole parts placement process four times?

 

Thank you.

 

Jeff

 

 

From a post in January this year

> As I posted elsewhere in this thread, here's my complete guide on how to

> duplicate an area of a layout and retain back/forth association to the

> schematic.

>

> Some others have reported that this doesn't work.  That is, they run the ERC

> and see a list of errors that includes nets that don't simply have the 1 or

> 2 or 3 appended to the end.  In a recent application of the procedure below,

> I ran into this same error.  There were two things that caused this error:

>

> 1. I pasted a section of my schematic so that it fell outside the valid

> screen area.  It pasted visually, but I wasn't able to move anything again.

> I'd get an error about trying to work outside the valid range.  To get

> around this, I set my grid at 1.00 inch and made it visible.  Then I zoomed

> all the way out and could see the valid paste area.  I made sure my pastes

> all fell inside this window.

>

> 2. I had created (and was trying to copy) nets in my layout that were not in

> my schematic.  Specifically, I have a ground ring around the perimeter of my

> board that I drew in at the layout level.  I was planning on connecting it

> to PE (and my schematic) later.  This made the schematic and layout not

> technically synchronized, even though the ERC reported no inconstancies.  To

> get around this, I renamed the nets to what they were going to ultimately

> end up as: PE.  I also tried naming them GND just to temporarily tie them to

> a know net.  Both of these solutions worked.

>

>

> The Procedure:

> -

> Sometimes circuit boards will have duplicate sections of schematic that you

> want to layout identically.  You could do this by laying out each section

> separately, but for large or complex layouts this would be very time

> consuming.  Eagle does not have a function that allows you to directly

> duplicate your layouts, so you have to use this workaround:

>

> 1. Create the schematic for the section you want to duplicate.  You can have

> additional schematic done at that time too if you like.

> 2. Create the layout for that section.  You can have additional layout done

> at that time if you like.

2 (a) Often a critical step is to run a renumber ULP so that you close any

holes in the component name sequence that may have arisen during editing.

> 3. Close the layout so that you only have the schematic open.

> 4. Use the window selection tool to surround the section of schematic you

> want to duplicate in the layout.

> 5. Use the scissors tool to copy the selection to the buffer.

> 6. Use the dropdown EDIT: PASTE to finish the copy operation.

> 7. Save the schematic and close it.

> 8. Open the layout. Click OK to acknowledge the warning about the schematic

> and board not being consistent. Close the schematic that opened when you

> opened the layout so that you only have the layout open.

> 9. Do the same window select, scissors, paste operation on the layout.  YOU

> MUST COPY EXACTLY THE SAME ITEMS AS YOU DID IN THE SCHEMATIC.  THIS INCLUDES

> COMPONENTS AND NETS.

> 10. Save the layout and open the schematic.  You should have both the

> schematic and layout open at this point.

> 11. In the layout, run ERC and you'll get a long list of nets that don't

> match.  Don't worry: you only have to fix each net once.  This is usually

> only 5 or 6 nets to fix the whole list.

> 12. The original section of layout will have nets named GND.  The new

> section will have them named GND1.  The original section of the schematic

> will have the nets named GND.  The new section will also have them named

> GND.  The task here is to rename the net GND1 to GND in the layout.

> 13. Type "show GND1" in the command line.  This will highlight GND1.

> 14. Use the name tool (R2 Icon) to change the name GND1 to GND.  If

> prompted, the rename applies to all nets.

> 15. If you run ERC again, you'll find that all of the GND/GND1 errors are

> gone.  Redo this renaming process a few more times for the remaining name1

> nets and you're done.

>

> Additional note: If you don't have any airwires for the net you're trying to

> rename then you'll have to create one using the line tool and the name tool:

> Create a line.  Rename that line using the R2 tool to the net name you need

> to rename (e.g. GND1).  This will connect the line to the pad that was

> previously un-airwired.  Now you can rename the airwire or line to the right

> name (e.g. GND) to fix that net.

> -

>

cheers

David