Is there a tutorial for Eagle 4.16r2?

For those who aren't familiar with it, Eagle is a schematic capture and printed circuit board design package for the Mac. It was developed by CadSoft, and gets great reviews from users.

However, sorry Johnjohn, I can't help you with a tutorial. Have you tried the CadSoft web site ?

Hi Steve,

There's a rudimentary tour available on their website. It will help get me started. Overlooked it when I downloaded the S/W.

Thanks a bunch,

John

John,

Eagle is about the easist to use PCB board package I every used. It is still not really easy. But the price is right. I use it for simple stuff. If its not simple I hire it done it costs a lot less and gets done faster.

Gordon

Hi JohnJohn,

You can download the manual and there is an online-help. Both are really `help-ful`. We are working with eagle since years and its very intuitive and powerful with features which cost you tens of thousands from other vendors.

Apart from that there is an excellent telefone support - they know really everything and it costs nothing - also (and even) for free versions.

One of the great advantages is that you get a powerful scipt-language based on C with which you can adapt the program easily to your own needs. We use it also for thick film hybrid and gigabit applications on ceramics.

Hope you`ll find it as ok as I do.
Regards Uwe

Eagle is great once you get used to its non-intuitive interface. Why they couldn't conform to a standard interface (Windows, MAC OS, etc.) is beyond me but that is beside the point.

Point your browser to the Cadsoft website. Goto "Download" and then "Program." The last 2 links are .pdf files of the Eagle tutorial in English and German.

Here is the direct link to the English version of the tutorial: ftp://ftp.cadsoft.de/eagle/program/4.16r2/tutorial-eng.pdf

Thanks Guest,

I really appreciate it.

John

Duh, ive been using eagle for years, and

didnt know that it was there.

Toughed it out myself, but

I m sure theres lots of stuff that

i dont know about.

Thanx much for putting up the link.

Everyone complains about how Eagle's UI is 'backwards' and so counterintuitive. Eagle started out with a similar design as AutoCAD; command line. People can draw complete schematics as well as board layouts and hardly even touch the mouse. Similar to how some of the guys I work with can draw a whole suspension in aCAD and their fingers never leave the keyboard. I personally prefer a GUI with pointer input capabilities and did find Eagle's UI rather awkward for a while. Now I have no problems using it at the same time as other Windose apps. My only problem is when I try to go from Solid Edge to Eagle and my 3DConnexion Space Ball doesn't allow me to zoom and pan. I guess I'm just spoiled. Fortunatly Eagle did understand the usefulness of zooming about the current location of pointer; I just pan by zooming out and back in with mouse pointer at different locations. To each their own I guess.

Anyways, do you have any specific questions for now?

Not now. Need to study this tutorial for awhile.

Thanks

J

I used Eagle as a first PC development program, and I must say that it is so much better than the olden days when we had to use pc tape on mylar (at 2:1 scale) and then have the original photo-reduced to get proper size.

The only problem I found was that the library was a little weak, and I had to do layouts for several parts which I used. Of course these parts probably didn't exist when Eagle was developed.

I would recommend starting with simple circuits, to get the hang of it all... even if you don't go to actual pc board with your design. Frankly I enjoyed working with it.

Bill

Eagle may be backwards by try any other program at any price that does what it does and see how you like it.

Eagle will get the job done but it take work on your part. Eagle doesn't know to gard imput to A/D converters or keep their traces away from noisy lines. But it lets you route them by hand.

Ask some one else for a free demo that works and lasts forever.

Gordon

I got to thinking... at the time that I used Eagle on a project, I was also looking at having the PC board done professionally rather than doing it in house. One PC fab house said that they would accept Eagle input files, but they would charge x$$ to convert the code over to Gerber (or whichever system they used)... Mine was a single sided, thru hole board... and Eagle made it so easy to make a silkscreen for it... we just went ahead and fabricated it here. There are possible problems if you are going to use your design for commercial fab houses.

Another thing I ran into... Let's assume that your project requires a board 1"x2". You say that "I can design the board (to the fab house) to use a 10" by 20" board, (get 100 pcb's) and when I get it back, I can cut it up into 100 usable PCB's. Some houses refuse to do that. Be aware...

Bill

IIRC Eagle will make the Gerbers for you. The light version is capable (from what I hear from others) the board house I send to will take Eagle .brd files with no extra charge.

Good luck.

Oh yeah, about libraries if you can't find what you need with Google (there are lots out there) it's not too hard to make your own.