quick questions on eagle / General Science and Electronics / Forums

Forums

4hv.org :: Forums :: General Science and Electronics

« Previous topic | Next topic »

quick questions on eagle

1 2 3 next

Move Thread

LAN_403

Electroholic

Mon Jan 15 2007, 12:41AM

Registered Member #191 Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 02:01AM
Location: Esbjerg Denmark
Posts: 720

im new to eagle, and i need a double layer board with like massive ground planes around my traces to minimize inductance, how do i do that.
the auto route button only give me traces.
Thanks.

...

Mon Jan 15 2007, 03:45AM

Registered Member #56 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445

You can use the 'rect' tool (15th down on the left) to manually put in shapes, or you are supposed to be able to use the polyogn tool to draw a shape, then use the name tool to name it gnd, then it should fill in (but sometimes it doesn't work)

Electroholic

Mon Jan 15 2007, 11:59PM

Registered Member #191 Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 02:01AM
Location: Esbjerg Denmark
Posts: 720

cool thanks, i'll try that

Electroholic

Fri Jan 19 2007, 11:01PM

Registered Member #191 Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 02:01AM
Location: Esbjerg Denmark
Posts: 720

Sorry to bother you guys again, but here are the problems that Im having.

The "rect" tool seems to have a very large increment, and is leaving a very large gap between my traces and the ground plane. Can I change the setting on that?

And the "polygon" tool just doesn't seem to work at all, it keeps telling me that i need at least 3 points, which I'm pretty sure I have, it even highlighted the polygon for me.

What should I do?
Do they not work on the freeware version?

...

Sat Jan 20 2007, 01:22AM

Registered Member #56 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445

you use the 'change' tool (looks like a wrench). It is something like isolate, select a different value and then click the polygon.

In an unrelated note, your eagle seems to act very differently than mine. when I create a rectangle it covers up all of the traces, and I never get the polygon 3 point error.

Try making one by clicking once, dragging the mouse at a diagonal (to make a L shaped wire) then double clicking. It should close and make a triangle. Then name it ground and hope that it fills in. Also, you might try turning on orphans (in the change menu).

Steve Conner

Sat Jan 20 2007, 09:56AM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

Hi,

The way I do ground planes, or any large area of copper, is to draw the whole extent of the area you want with the polygon tool, and then tell Eagle that you want this whole mess connected to net GND (or whatever net you do in fact want) using the same tool that's used for changing component designators. Then click the ratsnest button and the shape will be filled in and trimmed so that it stays the right distance from things that it's not meant to connect to.

As you can see, Eagle is kind of built on the assumption that you entered your circuit in the schematic editor, so it knows what tracks belong to what signals (or nets as they're called). It is also kind of weird to get used to. I've used it to design 4 layer boards with 128-pin ICs, so it does work. But the autorouter sucks

so I do all the tracking by hand.

Tom540

Mon Jan 22 2007, 08:40PM

Banned on 3/17/2009.
Registered Member #487 Joined: Sun Jul 09 2006, 01:22AM
Location:
Posts: 617

You could always DL the free version of PADS router. It is in my opinion and many others, is the BEST PCB layout software money can buy. As long as you only wanna make small boards it'll work. I think the part count limit is 30.

-Tom

Hazmatt_(The Underdog)

Fri Oct 12 2007, 07:24AM

Registered Member #135 Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:06AM
Location: Anywhere is fine
Posts: 1735

I'm trying to use Eagle but the #$%# program won't let me delete my mistakes or move components around, any suggestions?

I already tried the help, but it was no help.

I like Winboard a lot more but I can't get the part val and part ref white so it won't print, so i'm stuck between something I can use but's wrong, and something I can't use.

Matt.

...

Fri Oct 12 2007, 08:10AM

Registered Member #56 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445

You can only 'delete' stuff from the schematic editor, if you want to get rid of a trace on the PCB you have to use the 'ripup' tool.

To move parts you just use the move tool, and click on the little cross hairs for the component (make sure that tplace/bplace layers on on)

Avalanche

Fri Oct 12 2007, 05:21PM

Registered Member #103 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 08:16PM
Location: Derby, UK
Posts: 845

It should be the same in most packages, it's usually called a 'copper pour'. You shouldn't have to even route the ground at all, just specify a copper pour area set to attach itself to your ground or 0V net, and then pour copper. Hint - there should be an option to leave thermals around the pads which do connect, otherwise it is impossible to solder because the huge copper ground plane acts as a heatsink for your soldering iron! You specify the distance between the copper pour area and the unattached nets somewhere in your design rules.

I'm currently laying out a large 4 layer board at work with a 16 bit micro and 64 ICs, and auto-routers are banned where I work (to the point of disabling them on all the machines). I totally agree! The middle two layers are used mostly for power distribution and ground, and the copper pour is used on both of those layers - simplfying the routing because it leaves only the signal traces to route on the outside!

1 2 3 next

Moderator(s): Chris Russell, Noelle, Alex, Tesladownunder, Dave Marshall, Dave Billington, Bjørn, Steve Conner, Wolfram, Kizmo, Mads Barnkob