Single Schematic/Multiple board files

On 18/08/16 22:01, Glenn Jones wrote:

Hi, is it possible to have a single schematic linked to multiple board

files?

 

I want exactly the same schematic circuit but want to try different

layouts. I prefer not to have multiple copies of the same schematic to

keep track of changes?

 

Is this possible? I am guessing not but I thought I would ask.

 

No, unfortunately not. I nearly suggested a hack for Linux using links,

but it's not a good idea. Eagle requires both the schematic and board

open together to maintain consistency (see the recent thread

"Consistency errors" started by Jim McAuley) otherwise you have trouble.

So if you want multiple board variants from the same schematic, Eagle

would have to load several boards simultaneously, which it can't do.

It would be fine to create several boards from the same schematic by

renaming/copying/linking as long as you never want to change the

schematic again, but that was the restriction you're looking to avoid.

Glenn Jones wrote on Thu, 18 August 2016 22:01

Hi, is it possible to have a single schematic linked to multiple board

 

files?

 

I want exactly the same schematic circuit but want to try different

layouts. I prefer not to have multiple copies of the same schematic to

 

keep track of changes?

 

Is this possible? I am guessing not but I thought I would ask.

 

Glenn

Hi Glenn,

As Rob states, you can't do this directly, however you can do it if you

have your .sch and .brd files in GIT. Then create a branch in GIT for each

layout you wish to try. You simply switch branch to the one you are

interested in doing and reload your .brd file again with edit

.brd to force it to load the newly checked out out

branch's version. Back annotation will still work as your .sch will be

unique per branch too but so long as you don't want make any schematic

changes which reflect in all boards and this is just for layout trials I

think this still allows you to do what you need.

Best Regards,

Rachael

--

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

On 8/19/2016 4:26 AM, Rachael wrote:

Glenn Jones wrote on Thu, 18 August 2016 22:01

Hi, is it possible to have a single schematic linked to multiple board

 

files?

 

I want exactly the same schematic circuit but want to try different

layouts. I prefer not to have multiple copies of the same schematic to

 

keep track of changes?

 

Is this possible? I am guessing not but I thought I would ask.

 

Glenn

 

Hi Glenn,

 

As Rob states, you can't do this directly, however you can do it if you

have your .sch and .brd files in GIT. Then create a branch in GIT for each

layout you wish to try. You simply switch branch to the one you are

interested in doing and reload your .brd file again with edit

<insertDesignNameHere>.brd to force it to load the newly checked out out

branch's version. Back annotation will still work as your .sch will be

unique per branch too but so long as you don't want make any schematic

changes which reflect in all boards and this is just for layout trials I

think this still allows you to do what you need.

 

Best Regards,

 

Rachael

 

Hi thank you for the replies (Rob and Rachael).

I think the only thing you would not want to annotate forward or

backwards with multiple board files would be package variants.

Leave the schematic set to the initial package variant and then only

allow package changes from schematic to board files if you wanted to

reset a particular package type across all board files.

Maybe someday ...

Glenn