Eagle CAD Tips

From Laen

Board Layout

The free version lets you design a board that's up to 4 x 3.2 inches. When you lay out your board, START BIG. Try to get the relative positions of your parts set up the way you want them first, then move them closer and closer together until your board is as small as you can get it.

While you're shrinking the board, be sure to save space for documentation. Your board should have, at a minimum:

• Your name
• The board's name
• A revision number or date.

Autorouter

The autorouter in Eagle 5.6.0 doesn't work well with ground planes, so it seems to be best to autoroute your board first, then add a ground plane as the last step.

Place your parts so there are as few crossed airwires as possible.

When you first start the auto-router, one of the options it gives you is to set the "Preferred Directions" for traces.

Build your schematic and board at the same time (place a part on the schematic, place the part on the board). This gives you a clearer understanding of how the parts are layed out, and lets you deal with crossed airwires before your board is a mess of crossed airwires.

All in all, the autorouter does a really good job, and though the results aren't always pretty, it'll get the job done.