Have a question about CadSoft EAGLE?  Ask our Expert, Richard! (Archive)

hi there richard my name is andrew. i have been involved now with electronics for 3 years or so. so i have limited knowledge. i enjoy making my own pcb's

i have been using circuit wizard. which is fine but limited. so i got cadsoft eagle. now ive figured out how to place components in a schematic and from there make a board. but i dont know how to print the layout out so i can make an actual pcb. i have printed my board out but it still as the components on it and im not even sure it it is single sided or double sided. it is suposed to be single but how do i tell it.

i realy would appreciate any help so please help

hi there richard my name is andrew. i have been involved now with electronics for 3 years or so. so i have limited knowledge. i enjoy making my own pcb's

i have been using circuit wizard. which is fine but limited. so i got cadsoft eagle. now ive figured out how to place components in a schematic and from there make a board. but i dont know how to print the layout out so i can make an actual pcb. i have printed my board out but it still as the components on it and im not even sure it it is single sided or double sided. it is suposed to be single but how do i tell it.

i realy would appreciate any help so please help

Hi Andrew,

Hopefully Richard won't mind if I take care of this one.

In EAGLE the easiest way to tell wheter you have a single-sided or double-sided board is to look at your route colors. If it's a one sided board you'll only have either blue or red traces but not both. If you see both red and blue traces then you have a double-sided board.

In my experience, this procedure for the toner-transfer method has worked well for me:

-Don't print instead, use the cam2image.ulp first. In the ULPs options select Monochrome, set the resolution to 675(If I recall correctly that's the highest it will do) and make sure to set the output format to bitmap.Run the ULP.

-It will ask you for a CAM job, select gerb274x.cam and hit ok.

-Click Ok again to run the ULP.

-You will now have 5 or 6 images in the same directory as your board file. Your going to be interested in either the .cmp.bmp image or .sol.bmp image. Inspecting the images will let you know which one you need, because if you made a single side board one of the files will only have pads and vias in it no traces.

-Using your favorite image editor, or in the worst case windows paint, print the image and proceed as normal with the Toner transfer method.

Here's the reasoning behind using the cam2image.ulp. It is desirable to have as high a toner density as possible on the paper. More toner will produce a better mask on the board yielding better quality and reliablity, you'll also minimize "pinholes" in your traces. The bitmap file format should be used becaused the file is not compressed, if you use say the jpeg format then your lines will blur do to the compression and your final board will suffer.

hth,

Jorge Garcia

Cadsoft Support