55
votes
Accepted
Is it OK to route a trace through a pad?
There is no problem routing traces through pads (like you have done). Be aware when routing power/GND of the current that will be travelling through these traces. This will dictate trace thickness. In ...
- 1,599
37
votes
How to create measurement points on a PCB for diagnostics?
There are multiple ways to deal with adding testability features to a board. These will work in any CAD package designed for PCB Schematics and Artwork.
First step is to define a schematic symbol to ...
- 55.3k
30
votes
Is there a way to make a drill hole only up to half depth of the PCB in Eagle?
There is no way to directly do this in Eagle. You would have to simply annotate the design on some reference layer (most manufacturing data for production PCBs has some form of reference information).
...
- 56.9k
28
votes
My PCB manufacturer only requires eagle board file, and not a gerber file is it fine to go about getting the board fabricated with him?
My manufacturer only requires eagle board file, and not a Gerber file
Run away!
The competency of these people is highly suspect. This is not a real board house. Any minimally competent board ...
- 306k
25
votes
Accepted
How to chose via diameter and drill size based on trace width
The goal is to create a via with at least as much conductive area within the hole as the trace connecting to it (generally speaking, of course). My personal rule is to make the drill size diameter the ...
- 20.3k
24
votes
Accepted
Mounting hole on a PCB
The mounting holes that have the large copper pads around the hole are fabricated that way because it is desired to have that connected circuit be conductive to the mounting screw. In most cases it is ...
- 55.3k
22
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to move names and parts separately in board edit mode in Eagle?
Yes, it's called the Smash feature. Select Smash from the toolbar, click on the part, and the name and value labels can be moved ...
- 8,344
21
votes
Accepted
Eagle PCB change drill size of all vias of a specific size
If large chunks if not all of the vias need to be changed, you can do this quite easily.
Step 1
First you need to hide all layers but the vias layer (18). You can ...
- 56.9k
19
votes
Accepted
Version control of schematics and source code
Most of it comes down to personal preferences.
I track everything I do for a project in Git. Especially since Git handles most types of files, even binary, sufficiently efficiently. (In stead of ...
- 18k
19
votes
Accepted
How to create measurement points on a PCB for diagnostics?
This is quite a common thing to want to do, and really helpful for checking voltages.
A test point is really just a plated hole, perhaps with some nice labelling. Eagle has a library called ...
- 56.9k
18
votes
Difference between buses and nets
Nets connect two or more pins together - the connected pins should be routed in copper.
In Eagle, buses don't actually do very much, they just look pretty. You can however use them to keep track of ...
- 56.9k
17
votes
Accepted
Eagle CAD: method of re-linking schematic and board?
From schematic run ERC. Consistency errors will be at the top. Fix the errors by removing parts, nets, etc. that causes them then try to switch to layout and back. Repeat until the error message ...
- 3,221
17
votes
Accepted
PCB routing: isolate through-hole pins to force routing through decoupling capacitors?
The truth of the matter is that it doesn't really matter if the current "hits" the capacitor before the pin of the IC or not. This has long been debated and recent studies have suggested ...
- 20.3k
15
votes
Accepted
Pad hole size for 0.1" Male Headers
SparkFun has an Eagle library that has pads for single and dual row 0.1" headers from 1 to 40 pins. Here is one of several 1x03 headers (single row, three pins):
The holes have a 40 mil diameter. ...
- 47k
15
votes
Accepted
method of locating schematic part on board layout?
It's called 'cross-probing'. In Eagle open the schematic and the corresponding brd, on both interfaces press the eye-shaped icon ("Show Objects"). Now by clicking a ...
- 9,612
15
votes
My PCB manufacturer only requires eagle board file, and not a gerber file is it fine to go about getting the board fabricated with him?
I've been using a very reputable large European PCB house for many years, which accepts Gerber files of course. But they also accept quite a number of PCB design files and do the conversion for no ...
- 2,900
14
votes
Accepted
What are some tips to routing a one sided PCB?
Key in routing a PCB is part placement. It can be made almost impossible by poor part placement.
Looking at it a bit ...
IC1 looks like it needs rotating 180 degrees, and then move R1 and LED1 out ...
- 9,927
14
votes
Accepted
Hide particular airwires/nets in eagle
Yep, and it's pretty straightforward. Just click on the Info button , select the airwire you want to hide, and click on the "Airwires hidden" checkbox. All airwires on that same net will be hidden.
...
- 8,344
14
votes
Accepted
How to panelize gerber files?
I use the open source utility GerbMerge, it gets the job done nicely. The utility can be found here
Edit: looks like there is another version here that could be more up-to-date: https://github.com/...
- 39.7k
14
votes
How to create measurement points on a PCB for diagnostics?
This is from a "hobby electronics" point of view.
Your number of hands is limited, and debugging things often requires messing with stuff and pushing buttons while holding probes, and a few minutes ...
- 59.2k
14
votes
Is it OK to route a trace through a pad?
No, it is not a problem routing through a pad.
You might wish to consider adding ground and power planes to the design.
- 6,668
13
votes
Accepted
'Unrouting' a ground plane on Eagle
According to the help system of eagle, you can use the command
RIPUP @;
to ripup all polygons. You can limit this to polygons of a list of signals by
...
- 8,430
13
votes
what is the difference between tplace and tdocu layers in eagle pcb?
In the guts of Eagle, there is really no difference. The difference is by convention what each layer means and how it is used.
The intent of tPlace (and bPlace) is stuff that is directly drawn in ...
- 306k
12
votes
Accepted
How do I change the properties of several objects at once?
You probably need the change ("wrench") tool available from the GUI. But it might also worth considering using some Eagle commands for that purpose.
Assuming for example you want to change the ...
- 274
12
votes
Enabling extra routing layers in Eagle (paid version) PCB design
As Dave posted in his answer (+1), you need to enable the layers in the DRC. Here's an example:
And from the EAGLE help file (which is an excellent resource by the way):
Layers
The Layers tab ...
- 11.6k
12
votes
Accepted
Automatically renumbering element parts in Eagle
Although Tom Carpenters anwser is right, I am adding this as an alternative.
Eagle already has an inbuilt tool that will allow you to renumber parts without the need for external ULP scripts.
In ...
- 1,917
11
votes
Accepted
What is is an "M7" Diode
It's a SMT version of a 1N4007 (1A 1000V PIV). They definitely exist (I have a reel of a similar type kicking around somewhere) and they are very popular in Asia (typically from suppliers that are ...
- 331k
11
votes
Accepted
How to add part in eagle board that doesn't have corresponded in the schematic "jumpers"?
To figure it out you need to understand how EAGLE works. Each device you find in library consists of three components - package, or board footprint with pads (through hole or SMD), symbol with pins, ...
- 6,580
11
votes
Accepted
Eagle's PCB ratsnest command reports 3 airwires, but they are not visible
There is a very useful eagle ULP called "zoom-unrouted" which if you haven't already got it, you can download here.
Save it in the ULP folder and then run it (...
- 56.9k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible