Hi friends!

I am learning how to design PCB's, but sometimes I get quite confused about how to find the components I need. Eagle usually lists them with strange codes which I don't understand, and even worse, those codes won't work on the farnell website.

How do you find the components you need? To give an example, IDC cable sockets and connectors are hard to find....Eagle doesn't have a 3D viewer either so I could recognize the part...

 

Eagle has a very stupid organization of the library. It is one of the reasons I do not use it.

Bob

 

I totally agree with Bob. That's why I stick with Diptrace.

 

Looks pretty simple to me
(also a diptrace user but just downloaded eagle to see what/if Autodesk has made changes to it since its now under their umbrella)..

Seems to just be arranged by component type (con- for connections... then manufacturer name in that.. then by part number/family/series..)
With the fairly logical name/description you can then drill down into part number..

Its of course not all inclusive of all parts so many won't be in the library and you simply create your own...

 

I have not tried Diptrace, so I can't say if it is better or not.

Yes, Eagle components can be difficult to search for sometimes. With some practice and liberal wildcard use front and back (e.g., *10-pin*) I can zero in on it if it is there. It not being there is another matter....finding and installing additional libraries and so on. Making components is not terribly easy when I have tried, but frankly, I have not spent enough time on that to be comfortably critical....

Anybody find Microchip's ultra librarian useful? http://www.microchip.com/development-tools/resources/cad-cae-symbols

 

Use DipTrace...far easier to use and design your own components. After a few days getting used to it, it is very easy to use.

 

You can try using the search function. Otherwise, if it’s simple enough, learn to make your own. Sometimes I find it easier than finding one.

 

Hi friends!

I am learning how to design PCB's, but sometimes I get quite confused about how to find the components I need. Eagle usually lists them with strange codes which I don't understand, and even worse, those codes won't work on the farnell website.

How do you find the components you need? To give an example, IDC cable sockets and connectors are hard to find....Eagle doesn't have a 3D viewer either so I could recognize the part...

I make complicated parts of a design on paper then look for components with the wanted spec's at suppliers website.
Most of them have a std footpring (eq tqfp, sot, sod ) or supply you the footprint if not you have to make them which is simple.
I always draw my own symbols. Reason Using my drawing standard combine things example;

SPI master always the same sequence top clock, out ,in, enable.
SPI slave always top clock , in, out , enable

producing strait line in schematic.
And so on for the other xx number of pins.
I always try to use the same pin name/function in software.
In my hardware the pin RD2 is called Lcd_Pwr
in software #define Lcd_Pwr PORTDbits.RD2
Programming and hardware are now linked.
No misunderstanding between hardware design and software design.

Picbuster

 

Use DipTrace...far easier to use and design your own components. After a few days getting used to it, it is very easy to use.

A lot of people swear by Eagle. I don't get it.

You got to wonder what on earth the designers of this application were thinking when they designed the GUI.

They are not alone, LTSpice is just as bad, if not worse. Draftsight is pretty bad too but U am guessing it has something to do with it being a clone to Autodesk which goes back a million years.

 

What sort of boards have you designed? Can you post an example? What program do you use? Does it have schematic capture? Is/was it free? Can you use its files with most board houses, or do you have to create your own Gerber and drill files?

Sure, I have been using Eagle since version 3.x. And like I said in another thread, it is a little like a DOS shell with Windows 3.1. But, if you spend the time to learn it, it is quite intuitive. The command line (versions <8.0) is very powerful, and if you don't like to do that, you and use the edit/info dialog to do most anything you want to do.

In all those years, I can only think of one instance in which I could not find a suitable package or easily modified one, and that was not for me. It was for a TS on this forum with an oddball device, as I recall. My personal library is quite large by now, as I am sure many other users' are.

 

But, if you spend the time to learn it, it is quite intuitive.

By definition intuitive don't take any time to learn (or very little). You know how to use them pretty much immediately. At least the basics and then it builds from there.. Eagle is anything but intuitive.

 

I consider things like copy/paste, delete, smash, move, etc. intuitive. They require very little reading, if any, to master and work much like other Windows programs, particularly in later versions of Eagle. I did my first schematic without reading a manual. There are two versions of copy paste, one for groups and the other for individual components. That makes sense too. In the earlier versions all you needed to know for groups was to use the"cut" icon instead of "copy." Not a lot of reading was needed to grasp that. I did have a little CAD experience for mechanical drawings before trying Eagle, and the procedure for group copy was pretty much the same (i.e., highlight, assign as group, copy, paste).

You still need to know how to use them to create a schematic. That is, someone who had never drawn a schematic before or didn't know what "symbol," "package," and "device" meant might have problems. Of course, one person's "intuitive" may be another's "steep learning curve."

The command line is less intuitive as you need to know the control characters and proper instruction commands. I don't know of any programming language where that is not the case.

 

Actually, all those things are very un-intuitive. Intuitively, copy, paste, move and delete should work the same for groups and single components - single click selecting, ctrl click or drag a box around it - and do whatever you want with the selection like basically any other software that uses mouse. As far as I remember eagle does this in a very awkward way, which made me think when I first started using it that there was no way of doing anything with more than one object at a time.
Smash, what the hell is that supposed to mean? The icon nor the name actually tell you what it does or why it could be useful. Intuitive? Very much no.
And don´t get me started on those grey-on-grey icons that bear even less meaning than they did in the old UI circa verion 6.

 

All of the things that have been mentioned as being in Eagle can also be done in Diptrace. There must be something in Eagle that works with Diptrace, because all of the "items" or what ever you call the packages and components, will work in Diptrace too. But, for me at least I could use Diptrace right from the gitgo. It was just that much easier.