How to make a custom library part in Eagle CAD tool

The eagle cad tool is a great thing. It does have something that I see as a draw back. That is that you need to pick a package for your part while you are still working on the schematic phase of a project. I assume Cadsoft, the makers of eagle, have their reasons. Although eagle comes with an extensive part library, some times the part you want is not in the package you want, and other times neither the package or part you want is in their libraries. In these cases you are you are left with two choices. First, pick a similar part that already exists. Second, make your own part. This instructable will focus on the later option.

Step 1 Start the Eagle control panel

That step should be self explanatory.
In linux type eagle from the command line.
In windows double click on the eagle icon.
Or start->programs->eagle layout editor (version) -> eagle

Your screen should look something like this now.

Comments

[sandborn]

You really ought to start with the easy way. I came to figure out how to do this efficiently, and your instructions don't tell me how to copy an existing part and tweak it.

[WakeUpWolfgang]

How Would I go by doing it the easy way?

[ohnoezitasploded]

Thanks for this great tutorial. Is there a way to copy a symbol from another library? The command copy SYMBOLNAME@LIBRARYNAME doesn't work.

[kevinfodor]

I have even a simpler way.
Open the library where you want the part to be copied into (Library->Open)
Go to the Eagle Control Panel and find the \lbr folder where the library is that you want to copy from (under Libraries).
Expand and find the device/package you want to copy and right click it.
Select "Copy to Library"
That's it. Done.

[FazJaxton]

You can open the library, edit the part, select the cut tool, then select the group tool and highlight the entire symbol. Then right-click on the selected part and select "Cut: group". Return to your library, edit your part, select paste, and you should now have the part.

[ohnoezitasploded]

Thanks, I never would have figured that out. The copy command doesn't copy, and the cut command doesn't cut in that it doesn't remove the original. Non-intuitive.

[rangaec01]

this is just amazing tutorial for eagle thank s ..
look to see many more

[mykiscool]

I have an error message in the second part where I insert the symbol please help.

Adding symbol L78L05 to L78L05 would exceed the minimum number
of pads (0) available in package variant ''

What are pads even?

[RoboticProgrammer]

Thanks it worked perfectly for me :D

[bowlerhatman]

Hi there, great tutorial, thanks. One thing though, I can't for the life of me get the >VALUE and >NAME tags to work, whenever I try to change the value tag, a popup comes up saying that there is no user definable data. I've made sure the layer is set right and everything, and can't think of anything else wrong. Do you have any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks,
Frazer.

[jhr007]

Mega Thanks!

Tutorial for an old version, but still good. Nice combination of pictures and text, easy to skim to the info.

Short version: first/main window in eagle-> File-> New Library... or Open Library
See Step 7 to create a new package (notice the icons devices, packages, symbol
See Step 14 to create a new symbol
See Step 18+ on how to match the package to symbol, and match the pins

See comments below for how to cut and paste, and other tips.

[zodthekonquerer]

Dude, awesome instructable! This keeps me from having to such the depths of the interwebz for nixie tube libraries.

[AgeingHippy]

Magic!! :)

I needed to add a component (Eagle is very new to me) and this worked 100%

THANKS DUDE!

[Spokehedz]

How would someone who is smarter than I am make the part PTB78560CAH

Datasheet: http://focus.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/ptb78560c.pdf

I can't seem to get my head around the lack of a grid pattern on this part. And it's getting annoying with just having pads floating around on my schematic as I want to keep putting components where the board is going to sit on my PCB.

[DrNerdington]

If you can get a list of the pin names and numbers, you can make this easier with a script, as follows:
NAME P$1 PGND_1
...and so on; one pin per line.

A programmer's editor like UltraEdit or SciTE makes it easier to add the "P$" to the numbers. When you're done, save it as an ASCII text file with an .SCR extension and load it from Eagle's File menu. Easy peasy!

[DrNerdington]

It's probably a better idea to just make a tall, skinny box with pins in columns on the left and right sides. It's more compact and easier to use with Eagle's weird wire drawing tool which always assumes the horizontal component of the wire comes first (changing this behavior by right-clicking through every possible style or using the tool-bar becomes tedious quickly).

Also, the perfectionist in me cringes at your box being just off the visible grid, but that's neither here nor there ;-)

[robduarte]

 any idea how to make the part "smashable"?  i want to be able to rearrange the pin names in a schematic that uses this new part.  thanks for the instructable.

[aisvo]

It's probably late that I replied this question, but it might help those who have the same question.
Two special keywords need to be placed in the package drawing;
- ">NAME"
- ">VALUE"

There are a few other Special Case words, but these two should suffice for making it "smashable".

[thebookofkevin]

@josheeg, i think this tutorial might assume that you've already consulted cadsoft's provided tutorial for the basics of how to navigate and get things done in eagle. their provided tutorial is great for getting started, but distinctly lacks instructions on how to make a new library part, which is where this instructable comes in.

@kd7vnn, this is super helpful, but one thing that i think could also be covered to users' benefit is pin direction and why it matters to make sure you supplies are set to direction Pwr instead of I/O. (i'd offer these explanations myself, but i'm unsure of whether they're used for anything beyond DRC...)

[dustinandrews]

Super, thanks!

[Douglas_D]

If you're bored with clicking and typing... You can just select the name option on the left and then in the command line, type the current name and then the new name you want for each pin

[Fred82664]

cool I have Eagle installed on Linux and use it a lot

[zholy]

Hi ... thank you for this "tutorial". I manage to create my first part TLC59025. And there is a small suggestion to STEP 16. Do you think you could add a note that the grid should be set to 0.1 inch ?! I didn't do that and I couldn't make a connection in the schematic - this is mentioned in the manual, what I found out later when I was looking what went wrong. I used 0.05 grid instead 0.1.

Thanks again

[ArabFusion]

 Very helpful .. Much respect.

[yashkhaitan]

 Great tutorial. Thanks a lot!

[cfishy]

very helpful! thanks!

[E_MAN]

Thanks so much!
This Instructable was so helpful!
I was able to make my own component :-)

[iopacic]

I am tot.Beginer in EAGLE Your tutorial is great!!!!

[jcomuzzi]

Something that took me a while to figure out here: If you want a pad with holes, use the "pad" command rather than the "smd" command!

[atheel]

I don't know how to put the measures of my package. I just can't find the command line. Can you help me with this, please?

[zagnut999]

Hi,
This is a great article, but I was wondering if you have any time to update it to the 5.6 version?  No worries if you don't.  I am having issues trying to figure out if I'm doing something wrong or if the tool is just different.  For instance, when you create the symbol, do you need to resize the grid again?  My defaulted to inches.  Another thing is with the pins, you can't see which layer you are on any more... or I'm missing it.
Thanks for creating the above, it has been very helpful.
Nate

[Narbotic]

Thanks much - helpful stuff!

note - some users may want to toggle "show value" button in the device view.  This will display the pin names in the schamatic.

[davidjereb]

Great tutorial! Thank you! : )

[mvocray]

Saved me a lot of time! Thank you. :)

[SRChiP]

??

[thermoelectric]

I'm having a little trouble with this part, the measurements are on the second last page but I can't figure out which ones to use...

Can anyone figure out which measurements I use?

[amtekdesign]

This step is confusing. Should item (1) be done, then item (2), or is it (1) OR (2)? I'm guessing the latter, based on the title. However given that creating your own library is recommended, why even mention adding to an existing library?

[Doktor Jones]

If you have your own custom library already, it might make more sense to add new devices to that library rather than creating a new library for each custom device you add :) It could be clearer though that this is an either/or step.

[homunkoloss]

Very good ! Made a display in about half an hour

[amtekdesign]

The screen capture doesn't seem to match the instructions. Which is correct?