Shawn Wallace - Jumpstarting Your Own PCBs: Learn How to Design and Make Customized Circuit Boards

Copyright 2018 Shawn Wallace. All rights reserved.

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Autodesk EAGLE (Easily Applicable Graphical Layout Editor) is a collection of programs, each serving one part of the design process. Well focus on the Schematic Editor and the Board Editor other EAGLE modules include Autorouter (which uses a simple AI to trace circuit routes), the Parts Editor, the CAM Processor (for creating machining-ready files), and a scripting interface for writing user language programs (ULPs). This chapter is a quick overview of the tools well be using to create three different electronics projects in later chapters.

Designing a circuit board is not difficult but has some challenges specific to the application area that make having an electronic design automation (EDA) tool particularly useful. EAGLE offers a few advantages over a non-EDA design tool:

• Visualizing connections: Multisided PCBs can have components on different sides and traces that zigzag between layers.
• Hierarchical and parametric design: You should be able to make designs that can inherit properties from modules and be customized using data.
• Libraries: Electronics components come in a dizzying range of packages and variations tools for managing and organizing devices are critical.
• Design rules: You can specify constraints and test your design against them.

Another important consideration is how the electronics designer fits into a larger product development cycle. Many EDA tools are now offering closer integration with CAD toolsfor example, Altium and SolidWorks, or EAGLE and Autodesk Fusion 360.

Autodesk offers a few different options for licensing your EAGLE software. With EAGLE version 8, Autodesk moved to a subscription model, which gives you a few choices:

• The free version: Autodesk offers a free download aimed at hobbyists and makers, with some limited features (a 12.4 sq. in. size limit, for example).
• EAGLE Standard: This is the version you need to subscribe to if you are doing commercial PCB work. Its $15 a month with some limitations (e.g., an area of 24 sq. in.). Students can get a free standard subscription for three years.
• EAGLE Premium: The premium version is aimed at design teams and provides additional tools for hierarchical design and library management, and it removes all of the limitations of the standard version.

Everything in this book can be done using the free version, which you should download from Autodesk:

www.autodesk.com/products/eagle/free-download

Weve exported all the library parts used in this book into an easy-to-use custom library. You can grab the JumpstartEAGLE library from http://github.com/moderndevice/JumpstartEAGLE and place the LBR file in EAGLEs lbr directory (see Chapter 4 for more on creating your own libraries for EAGLE).

EAGLE is a modular tool you will often have several windows open at once and will be flipping back and forth, so I suggest using a large display. Also, I strongly suggest that you work with a mouse with a scroll wheel if youre using a laptop the mouse makes it easier to work with EAGLE, compared to the trackpad. The mouse scroll wheel controls the zoom, which youll find yourself using a lot.

The control panel is where you access all the various EAGLE modules and manage libraries, plugins, 3D models, and CAM jobs. Theres also documentation bundled with the application. The control panel pops up when you first open EAGLE ().