New to Eagle, have some questions.

Am 16.01.2012 23:15, schrieb rickford66:

1.  Is there a way to generate a BOM from Eagle?

This function is NOT available from the user interface, but CadSoft has

provided a so-called ULP that can do a rudimentary BOM. You start it by

typing 'run bom' in EAGLE's command line. I've never used that ULP,

because it's a bit TOO rudimentary for me, but for a starter, it might

be OK.

I don't see how I enter the part numbers and manufacturers information for each part.

The above ULP relies on the user creating a small database, which can be

created from within the program itself. Since documentation of this ULP

is, errrrm, poor, you might need to fiddle around with it a bit...

2.  In my previous capture/layout software, the schematic and PCB were completely independent of each other.  This allowed me to give the schematic one drawing number, and the PCB another drawing number.

Having schematics and board COMPLETELY independent is NOT such a good

idea, because it is TOO easy to make errors when changes in one or the

other are necessary later (one would need to make all changes TWICE and

pay one HELL of an attention to do everything properly). Therefore,

schematics and board MUST have the same file name and MUST be loaded at

the same time.

Can I give different drawing numbers to the shematic and PCB in Eagle 6.1?

Since EAGLE doesn't HAVE the concept of 'drawing numbers' (just file

names), you would need to put them in as regular text. And of course,

you can write whatever you want into text fields. But maybe I'm

misunderstanding something...

Andreas Weidner

Hmm, I never found it difficult to keep track of the separate files, because the schematic file generated a netlist.  I would load the netlist into the pcb and run a check.  If the pcb didn't match the schematic, I would get errors.  It would tell me what the errors were so I could make corrections.  No big deal there.  Having them linked so tightly is going to take some getting used to.  I wonder how much trouble the BOM things is going to cause me.  Seems weird to me that Eagle would not provide a way to enter part numbers.  I mean, putting a 1206 cap on the board doesn't tell you if the cap is ceramic, pps film, or what.  And, it doesn't tell you who makes it.  Seems like I may have a request to submit for Eagle 6.2.  Thanks.

I use the value and name as separate entities. That is how I keep it clear to me. I can always alter those to fit the BOM later if needed but I try to keep them consistent so it is easier to sort later and add things if I need them. Value is pretty much set (if you use it that way), but name can be whatever you want it to be. That is where I name "type of" for passives, and part number if it is specific.

On 17/01/2012 01:34, rickford66 wrote:

I wonder how much trouble the BOM things is going to cause me. Seems

weird to me that Eagle would not provide a way to enter part numbers.

I mean, putting a 1206 cap on the board doesn't tell you if the cap

is ceramic, pps film, or what.  And, it doesn't tell you who makes

it.  Seems like I may have a request to submit for Eagle 6.2.

Thanks.

As well as the name and value, Version 5 introduced user-assignable

attributes to parts.  This allows you to specify any number of

additional parameters for each device.  For your example you could, say,

have a "DETAIL" attribute containing text describing each part ("6.3V

10% Tantalum", etc).

In particular, attributes are handy for storing supplier order codes and

many standard devices have an OC_FARNELL attribute already set, giving

the Farnell order code automatically.

If you use attributes to store additional data that must end up on your

BoM you will need a BoM generator which pays attention to these. I've

found the simplest is "bom_with_attributes" but Cadsoft's sites also

list several others ("attbom", "bom-ex") which I've not tried.

You can get them here:

http://www.cadsoftusa.com/cadsoft-downloads/

Let me know if you find a particularly good one!

All the best,

Andrew

0xADF

Ok, that sounds good.  That is much like my old Tango (DOS) program that allowed the user to create attributes and select those attributes when printing a BOM.  Thanks.

Ok, that sounds good.  That is much like my old Tango (DOS) program that allowed the user to create attributes and select those attributes when printing a BOM.  Thanks.