Change layer during routing?

On 26/05/16 08:53, Lix Paulian wrote:

 

After intensively searching the manual and fiddling around with the

assign command I could not find an alternate way to the thee buttons

mouse "change layer" when manually routing a board. Is anybody out there

that can help me define a combination key or mouse/key to this end?

 

Three buttons? I'm sure it's only one (two if more than two layers).

Perhaps that got broken by the "new and improved" (ha!) "more intuitive"

(as if!) "windows-style" GUI. Set the magic config to get the original

UI back.

No, seriously. I don't want to get into the GUI issue now, I'm fighting with it on a daily basis.

Now, changing layers while routing a net is said to be possible by clicking the middle button on a three button mouse. It can't be that there is no other way. However, I couldn't find this piece of information in the manual.

Not only that I don't use a three button mouse, I don't use a mouse at all (since three years now). I know that many people can't believe this, but a multitouch track pad is (in my opinion and with some training) far superior to any mouse, no matter how many buttons it has. So don't tell me "buy a decent mouse".

I can't believe that CadSoft has implemented no alternative to the middle button to change layers.

Lix Paulian wrote on Thu, 26 May 2016 21:51

I can't believe that CadSoft has implemented no alternative to the

middle button to change layers.

Except of course the "LAYER" command?

If you only have a small number of layers you could assign keyboard

shortcuts to issue different "LAYER LayerNum;" commands.

Ideally I guess a couple of keys to scroll backwards and forwards through

the available layers would be nice. ULP does allow you to access which

layers are available but I can't see an easy way of determining the

currently selected layer at the moment otherwise it would be trivial to

implement this functionality in ULP and assign that to shortcuts.

Best Regards,

Rachael

--

Web access to CadSoft support forums at www.eaglecentral.ca.  Where the CadSoft EAGLE community meets.

Lix Paulian wrote on Thu, 26 May 2016 21:51

I can't believe that CadSoft has implemented no alternative to the

middle button to change layers.

Except of course the "LAYER" command?

If you only have a small number of layers you could assign keyboard

shortcuts to issue different "LAYER LayerNum;" commands.

Ideally I guess a couple of keys to scroll backwards and forwards through

the available layers would be nice. ULP does allow you to access which

layers are available but I can't see an easy way of determining the

currently selected layer at the moment otherwise it would be trivial to

implement this functionality in ULP and assign that to shortcuts.

Best Regards,

Rachael

--

Web access to CadSoft support forums at www.eaglecentral.ca.  Where the CadSoft EAGLE community meets.

My error was that I ASSIGNed to a key the CHANGE LAYER command, and this would interrupt the ROUTE command. With LAYER it works! thanks for the hint.

BTW, regarding the issues I had with the Schematic editor, I tried everything including your hints, however the efforts in finalising a schematic with Eagle are considerable larger than with any other schematic editor (at least compared with those I already know). The acronym "Easily Applicable Graphical Layout Editor" is one of the worst jokes I have come upon.

Yes CHANGE LAYER is only used to change the layer of existing completed traces, polygons etc. It's a common mistake as it can be a little confusing when you first come to EAGLE.

FWIW, when I first came to EAGLE I found initially things were totally not obvious and didn't follow conventions. Now I am used to using it, in many cases I find it far simpler to use than many of the expensive tools from the major ECAD vendors, and I have used several of these over the years. One of the biggest things for me though is the openness of EAGLE for expandability using ULP. If it doesn't have a feature I need I can usually write something that will do it or approximate it. There is a learning curve there though and ULP needs some updating with new constructs, built-in functions, and objects to make it really powerful.

Anyway, I'm glad you're now able to change layers with ease. If you need any more help just ask.

Best Regards,

Rachael

Thanks Rachael again for your help.

Eagle being not obvious and not following conventions is unfortunately so true! As a consequence I find myself doing (or expecting) things in other (standard) programs the way Eagle does! And this is not funny at all. On the other hand, if I don't use Eagle for a while, I have again difficulties to accommodate. And this is something the CadSoft guys should really think about. This is really counter-productive on a wide range.

Without wanting to go into details (one could write tens of pages of what is wrong with Eagle's GUI), there are however several striking things. For one, CadSoft "invented" the right-click contextual menu without first selecting an object! To my knowledge this is something no software did to date! Good luck of being on the right object when you right click. And there are so many other strange inconsistencies. They really need a GUI specialist (one with academical grades).

Of course there are many small things that they handled in their particular way, things that have nothing to do with doing certain operations faster or not (like simple save/new/create/load dialog boxes); but there is a fundamental thing that I can't understand: why on earth they don't add the standard "arrow" (or "hand", or something similar) button? This would allow one to select an object (or for the matter of fact, using cmd and/or shift click, multiple objects); then you should be able to do anything with it/them, by clicking the already existing delete, move, rotate, flip, copy, smash, lock, mirror.... etc buttons/functions. Take the current move command for instance: the paradigm of having an object or group of objects "glued" to the mouse while moving is simply wrong. And you do a lot of moving in a CAD software. As I said, I am finding myself expecting to have objects "glued" to the mouse in other CAD programs :-(

They can keep many of the current concepts (where I can see that there are certain advantages), but they still can do this while migrating to a modern standards-based GUI.

Best regards,

Lix

Thanks Rachael again for your help.

Eagle being not obvious and not following conventions is unfortunately so true! As a consequence I find myself doing (or expecting) things in other (standard) programs the way Eagle does! And this is not funny at all. On the other hand, if I don't use Eagle for a while, I have again difficulties to accommodate. And this is something the CadSoft guys should really think about. This is really counter-productive on a wide range.

Without wanting to go into details (one could write tens of pages of what is wrong with Eagle's GUI), there are however several striking things. For one, CadSoft "invented" the right-click contextual menu without first selecting an object! To my knowledge this is something no software did to date! Good luck of being on the right object when you right click. And there are so many other strange inconsistencies. They really need a GUI specialist (one with academical grades).

Of course there are many small things that they handled in their particular way, things that have nothing to do with doing certain operations faster or not (like simple save/new/create/load dialog boxes); but there is a fundamental thing that I can't understand: why on earth they don't add the standard "arrow" (or "hand", or something similar) button? This would allow one to select an object (or for the matter of fact, using cmd and/or shift click, multiple objects); then you should be able to do anything with it/them, by clicking the already existing delete, move, rotate, flip, copy, smash, lock, mirror.... etc buttons/functions. Take the current move command for instance: the paradigm of having an object or group of objects "glued" to the mouse while moving is simply wrong. And you do a lot of moving in a CAD software. As I said, I am finding myself expecting to have objects "glued" to the mouse in other CAD programs :-(

They can keep many of the current concepts (where I can see that there are certain advantages), but they still can do this while migrating to a modern standards-based GUI.

Best regards,

Lix