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Schematic: moving net traces off the 0.1 in grid

crlMidi

Hi,

 

I'm working on a fairly general procedure for laying out stripboard (Veroboard) designs using the schematic editor, without designing a board (see post of 2nd February). It looks as though it can be done and you can still create a net. The net traces will use the copper when they go along the strips, and be thought of as jumpers elsewhere (a schematic has only one side).

 

The stripboard, holes, track cuts and points to be soldered are created as "pinless" library devices and placed on separate layers. The library has a set of component devices where the symbols have the same dimensions as the packages.

 

The only remaining difficulty is that if I follow the manual to the letter, it isn't possible to allow the jumpers to get closer than 0.1 inch to each other, and that takes a lot of space.

The manual warns of dire consequences if you don't restrict yourself to the 0.1 inch grid when drawing schematics.

image

My question is whether it would be "safe"  to move segments of the net traces off grid using Alt, provided the traces begin and end on grid points. The image shows what I'd like to do. This doesn't matter at all if you will never need to use the net, but I want to be absolutely sure before publishing anything.

  • 0

    If I'm understanding correctly you aren't going to use Eagle to produce a PCB layout from the Schematic you draw. The schematic will be used as a visual guide to manually place, cut and link a design on strip board.

    That being the case, you can ignore the advice about sticking to the 'grid' or else.... As far as I know that advice is _only_ to ensure that any wires and/or pins which appear to touch do in fact end/start in the same place and thus get recognised as _joined_ together and belonging to the same net; which is essential if designing the PCB layout in Eagle else you will very likely miss connectivity errors as they wouldn't be automatically checked.

    HTH

  • 0 in reply to Former Member

    Many thanks for your quick reply. Perhaps I should have explained better why I want to do it properly for one particular project.

     

    A lot of people need to make MIDI music interfaces, for example for Arduino projects. Most simple breadboard designs on the web are unsatisfactory, and Sparkfun can no longer supply their boards (the optoisolator has been withdrawn). So I thought I'd do one in a way that other people can easily copy, and at the same time try to make it easier for people to lay out other stripboard circuits while taking advantage of the functionality of Eagle.

     

    Since Eagle is fairly standard in Arduino circles, it would make sense to do the stripboard design in such a way that anyone who wants to can design a PCB without having to revise the schematic. I gather from your reply that it's quite OK to move the traces closer together as long as the nets appear separate on the schematic and all the pins are on the grid. There's the same requirement for presenting the jumpers on a stripboard design, so I'll go ahead like that and hope to post the project soon.