Trying to place track in CadSoft Eagle version 6.

Hi Warren,

there are some more options for ROUTE in combination with shift and Ctrl keys, for example:

Ctrl+Left starts routing at any given point along a wire or via.

Shift+Left starts routing with the same width as an existing wire.

Center selects the layer.

Right changes the wire bend style

Shift+Right reverses the direction of switching bend styles.

Ctrl+Right toggles between corresponding bend styles.

Shift+Left places a via at the end point.

Ctrl+Left when placing a wire end point defines arc radius.

Hope this helps.

Richard

Hi Richard,

First let me start by saying thank you for your response to my posting,

Since my posting I have spent some time, in fact most of the weekend! playing with the software, I started from scratch, created a new project and input my schematic using a variety of library parts, initial progress was painfully slow but after a few hours things improved (Use of copy command when placing multiple parts).

Next I toggled to the board editor and said yes to a new board, I spent some time moving the components around to achieve shortest routes hitting Ratsnest from time to time to refresh the nets view.

I had no intention of using the router to auto route the board it seems to want to make double sided boards I wanted a single sided layout.

Having got what I considered a reasonable placement I started manually tracking up the board, progress was slow hampered by the software's desire to control the placement of the track.

After a couple of hours I had finished the board (not pretty but electrically correct). A DRC flagged up a few problems but for a one off hobby project nothing  life threatening!.

All in all I was quite pleased with my first attempt, so pleased that I opened a file for a GPS Logger (Someone else's project but created in Eagle), it was a double sided board and as I fancied building the project I wanted it on single sided board. the task of making a board layout from the original schematic in single sided form took about an hour, and the resultant board is not significantly larger than the original.

After spending around 15 hours playing with Eagle I have say it's very good.

I could get things done more or less straight away and as with most things practice will result in improvement.

I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the libraries, they are quite extensive.

I have a few issues these may be as much as anything down to my lack of experience with the software,

The ability to move pins around  components in schematic would help achieve tidy layouts.

The ability to place track without an invite from the router would be nice.

While making my single sided layout I needed to place a wire link, this I tried to do in the board editor only to be given a message to do it in the schematic (Reverse annotation?) this meant in practice having to make a note of the parts at each end of the link so as to work out where to place the link in schematic, deleting  wires in the schematic and re-drawing them to keep the schematic looking tidy resulted in the loss of tracks in the board layout.

The move command needs to move track or move drag end, this would avoid the situation I found myself in more than once when I tried to move a track and it took on the shape of a wire coat hanger! in the finish I gave up and used Rip-up to delete the offending track, trouble is it often removed more track than I had bargained for (The undo button saved the day).  

Some of the points I'm having difficulty with are more than likely down to my ignorance of Eagle's operation, so better results may be achieved as I spend more time using it.

I am at the start of the learning curve and learning may take some time!, but with the likes of yourself and others kind enough to give advice in these forums the task should be considerably eased.

Thanks & Kind Regards,

Warren.