3 Simple Ways to
Share What You Make

With Instructables you can share what you make with the world — and tap into an ever-growing community of creative experts.

PhotosPhotos

Share one or more photos of a project, recipe, or whatever you've made, quickly and easily.

Step by StepStep-By-Step

Share your step-by-step photos with text instructions of what you made so others can do it too!

VideoVideo

Share your how-to video. You'll need your embed code from a video site such as YouTube.

Make hobbyist PCBs with professional CAD tools by modifying "Design Rules"

Step 2Intro, part 2 - Cadsoft EAGLE

Intro, part 2 - Cadsoft EAGLE
Cadsoft EAGLE: http://www.cadsoftusa.com/

Cadsoft is a German company that is a veritable mecca of software distribution enlightenment. In addition to the reasonably-priced professional PCB design packages ($1200), they have freeware, lite, non-profit, and other intermediate licenses. Their software runs under windows, linux, and MacOSX. It's slightly quirky, with a steep (but not too high) learning curve on the front end, but from most reports it is not any more so than other professional CAD packages. They have online support forums that are active from both the company and other users, the package is under current development and gets better with each release. A number of PCB fabricators will accept their CAD files directly. It's good stuff.
Use it. Propagate it. Buy it when you "go pro."

This document is not a tutorial on how to use EAGLE, although it'll probably be somewhat useful in that role. It's more about how to configure and customize an Eagle installation to better suit the hobbyist.
---
See also:
Schematic Entry
Create PCB from schematic
Creating Library parts
Design rule modification
Send CAD Files to manufacturers
« Previous StepDownload PDFView All StepsNext Step »

Pro

Get More Out of Instructables

Already have an Account?

close

All Steps Viewing
View all steps of an Instructable on the same page when you're a Pro Member.

Upgrade to Pro today!
157
Followers
29
Author:westfw
Middle aged geek username also works at yahoo.com, mac.com, comcast.net, wharton-10.arpa