Hello!
I'm working with eagle v6 for the first time and I just finished with my first routing of a pcb. The problems I'm running into now consist of a large number (563) of errors consisting of types dimension, drill size, stop mask and width.
I'm not entirely sure how to address these errors (i've read the error chapter in the manual), so any help/comments that help to improve my understanding of eagle are greatly appreciated.
The project is attached

 

Check what the design rules are set to right now and see if they are right for your design.

My first project showed a number of "dimension problems" because reverse LEDs required copper and solder pads right next to a hole in the board and Eagle thought they were too close together. I checked the datasheet several times for proper layout and eventually talked with the pcb manufacturer to determine if that aspect of the design worked for them, which it did.

At that point, I could turn down the minimum clearances Eagle was looking for until it showed no errors, or simply ignore the errors once I knew they didn't represent actual problems.

I have a feeling that 563 problems won't go away on their own quite that easily, but you may find that at least some of them go away if you make reasonable adjustments to what Eagle is looking for.

 

Hello,

What kind of errors do you see?
On this forum one gave some description of the errors that can happen:
http://www.element14.com/community/thread/17622

Bertus

 

As mentioned above, the solution to drill size, mask, dimension and other errors is in the rules that you set. One gotcha to be aware of is the background conversion of units that Eagle does. For example, you may see that the minimum drill size is 24 mil; however, Eagle may actually be using .6 mm then converting that to inches to get 23.622 mil, which will fail the drill-size check. The solution/workaround is the set the minimum dill size to 23 mil and so forth. Mask clearance is another very common problem. In fact, components in the Eagle-supplied libraries (e.g., pin headers) will often fail with the default DRC rules.

Right now I am working on a back-up PC and can't check my version of Eagle 6.x. The problem just mentioned is a real PITA on version 7.x and apparently there is no global solution.

"Angle" errors will also pop up and are hard to fix. You will usually need to reroute. If you don't want perfect 45 and 90° angles, just turn the rule off.

John

 

Thanks for the helpful replies!
As of right now I managed to take care of the drill size error by changing the minimum drill size to 16mil, but for some reason this added errors to the stop mask and other categories (I'm at around 800 , 600 of which are stop mask related and of which 580 are related to layers 21 and 29). I've decided that silk screen errors are mainly due to poor component art, so I will be ignoring the 580 errors(more like a warning anyway) that are not related to text. I've fixed all issue not related to the component silkscreen. The last aspect of the design that I am concerned about is whether or not I need some sort of cooling for the mosfets. They will be handling up to 3A for a motor (intermittently and not for long periods of time), but are rated for 40A. Also any comments on the design/circuitry of the board are appreciated (Forgot to say that this is an arduino shield controller for a hydroponic system with button/lcd interface).
Avi

 

A lot of board houses will have a minimum drill greater that 16 mill -- a #78 drill (#80 is the smallest common drill). Be sure your shop can do that without extra charges. Twenty-three mill is more common.

Although you may not intend to have a drill that small, many of the Eagle drill sizes are based on a percentage of something else. You may have that something else small enough to give too small a drill. Using 23 mil (or whatever your PCB house will accept) will avoid that potential error.

John

 

This is just for the via's right?