Turn your EAGLE schematic into a PCB

In a previous Instructable, I provided an intro to schematic entry using CadSoft's EAGLE editor.
In this instructable, we'll make a printed circuit board from that schematic

I guess I should say that we'll make a PCB DESIGN; making the physical board is a different task, and there are a lot of tutorials on the net (and even some instructables) on making the board after you have the design.

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Cadsoft EAGLE generic information:

Cadsoft EAGLE is available from 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."

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See also:
Schematic Entry
Creating Library parts
Design rule modification
Send CAD Files to manufacturers

Step 1 Starting from the schematic...

So this is the schematic we have from the Schematic Instructable. Up in the file menu, there's a "Switch to board" selection. If we do that from a bare schematic, it will offer to create the board from the schematic for us (say "yes"), and then leave us sitting in the Board Editor.

Comments

[stuffstuffa]

How can I mirror the whole board?

[thypnotist]

Your a Ledgend.
This is exactly what I needed to know from start to finish.
Thanks heaps.....
David

[sallen14]

Nice tutorial!
I've been designing boards and schems using Eagle for a while now, but where I am coming unstuck is finding someone who can make a PCB from the board file that Eagle produces.
My main board maker can't use the Eagle files, he only wants files in Protel (Protrax etc) format.
My alternative boardmaker also can't use the Eagle files and is asking for Gerbers.
So far I have not been able to find any program that can convert Eagle files to either of these formats.
I did contact one boardmaker who said they could produce a board for me using the Eagle files, but they wanted something like $150 to make one board!!

Any suggestions?

[Wichers]

You might try silvercircuits.com. They are much cheaper and can produce boards directly from the eagle files.

[westfw]

EAGLE can produce gerbers pretty easily; there is even an instructable: http://www.instructables.com/id/Professional-PCBs-almost-cheaper-than-making-them-/
Various PCB vendors (Sparkfun's BatchPCB, DorkbotPBX, Itead, Seeed) provide the .CAM files that produce the right gerbers with the expected filenames for that vendor...
I can recommend Dorkbot for small boards; helpful community, nice boards. I think they'll actually take .BRD files, but it's generally better to prepare the gerbers yourself so that you get the content you want on the silkscreens (names, values, and outlines are separate decisions!) http://dorkbotpdx.org/wiki/pcb_order

[aessam1]

Amazing,very helpful tutorial
and i have a small addition here
to export the PCB for toner transfer
view only (pads,vias,bottom layer)
then print from file menu
and mark (mirror,black,solid)
thanks

[ptorelli]

Hello,
Great tutorial, much faster than the web-based videos.

What are your recommendations on production houses? I googled PCB fabrication and found a dozen or so shops that provide their own cam files. Rates range from $50 to $150 for a dozen or more 2"x2" 2 layer boards. Before I plunk down that much for a mistake, wondering if you have any favorite places?

thx,
p

[abraxas2]

Now that the autoroute has destroyed my hours of work, how do I undo it ? Undo doesn't work !!!

[computurwizard]

You can undo the autorouter. Click the ripup icon, then on the top toolbar click the little traffic light icon. A window will pop up asking if you are sure. Hit Yes.

[westfw]

You can't undo the autorouter. It's a good idea to save your work often, especially before large changes like autorouting. The autorouter should not have destroyed any of the manual routing you did; it just added a bunch of "other" traces. You can get rid of individual traces, or sections, or everything, with "ripup", but there isn't specifically a "ripup the bits you just autorouted."

[eriol]

using this instructable for creating a guitar pedal with friends.
thank you for sharing

[jonnyphenomenon]

Great instructable man. I just finished reading the "how to draw a schematic" one and loved it. you helped me figure out what i was doing wrong. :)

I sure would like to be able to download that hobby.dru file, but the site keeps telling me I need to be logged in. (I am logged in, or else I wouldnt be able to post this) Anyway, guess I will have to follow your instructable and just make my own :)

[bmlbytes]

Try the hobby.dru file on this page.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-hobbyist-PCBs-with-professional-CAD-tools-by-/

[jonnyphenomenon]

Thanks! I dont remember how I did it, but somehow I was eventually able to get it. the only problem I had after using your hobby.dru file was that I coudlnt change the shape of my pads. so some pads on transistors violated the rules. I ended up exporting my drawings into coreldraw format and trimmming them there.

[hightekrednek2396]

if only i could put ten stars well done now in 30 minutes i know how to make boards in eagle thanks

[alr206]

How do you get it to incorporate contacts that are connected to gnd? Everytime I try, it excludes those areas (I am using your design rules file). Thanks -- your instructables have been VERY helpful!

[westfw]

make sure that both the signal and the polygon have the same name (ie "gnd") The easiest way to name the signal is to attach one of the "gnd" symbols to it, and for the poly it's easiest to use the "poly gnd" to create it, but you can also name them with the "name" command/button.

[abraxas2]

Every time I try to rename a signal path or pad, in board view, it says "Cannot Back Annotate ...Change in Schematic View" So after many attempts I finally manage to change one of these items names to "Base" , in schematic view, since it connects to a transistor base. It prompts me with an invite to connect Base and Gnd, I respond "no". The adjacent signal path which I do want renamed gnd, keeps on resetting to the name Base and won't let me change it to gnd...no matter how many times I try. Worse yet, when I do the gnd plane, both the Base and Gnd signals get tied to the plane. It's driving me nuts.

[abraxas2]

The only thing I can see is that I have some very faint phantom lines connecting the Base and GND traces. These are lines I believe left over from a Rip Up repair. I'm guessing the program still thinks these items are connected.

[alr206]

I didn't realize that what I actually had was thermals, so the pads should appear a little bit different under a closer view than in the pictures above. Thanks again!

[westfw]

Ah. Yes, I have thermals turned off in my init files, which makes my normal behavior different than the default behavior. I should be more careful about that!

[abraxas2]

I can't thank you enough for this excellent tutorial. I thought I'd never get the hang of it and it's not a very intuitive program. Do consider turning these tuts into a book. Now hopefully one last question : after drawing the ground plane with the ratsnest command I got a nice big plane but also a bunch of tiny little islands that serve no purpose but to make the board look dumb. I tried erasing these islands with the rip up but it just ripped up the closest vital wire instead. Is there away to zap these tiny little island ground planes ? Thanks MUCHO !!

[westfw]

you can draw lines and/or rectangles in the tRestrict or bRestrict layers, which will prevent the polygon fill from entering those areas. You can see this in the PCB that goes with http://www.instructables.com/id/Single-Sided-Really-Bare-Bones-Board-Arduino-in-EA/ - I use it to prevent copper between the pads of the bottom-side SMT capacitors. Note that the restrict layers are not displayed by default; you'll have to turn them on in the layer menu (they might get turned on automatically when you draw on them, too.)

[abraxas2]

It mysteriously fixed itself. Thanks.

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[nicolo86]

Really useful, but i have a question. Is it possible to make two different PCB connect with each other. if yes how. thanks

[tomtortoise]

yo when i did this step the two non-polar capacitors disappeared from the whole thing? i have know idea what happened to them and i still barely know how to use the program.

[amando96]

 swett, helped me a lot
*faves*

[abraxas2]

Sorry but I'm missing something here. I've got a nice picture of components and lines between them. I need artwork, that is to say a black and white transferable image for final etching. I'm not seeing that under export. When I get the export image it's just a copy of the board layout with all these component images included. I just want the conductive lines and pads ???.

[westfw]

There was supposed to be a follow-on instructable on getting PCB-ready output files of various sorts, but real life sorta delayed that one.  A couple of other helpful Instructables have shown up from other authors, though:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Automating-Eagle-export-and-preparing-for-printing/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Professional-PCBs-almost-cheaper-than-making-them-/

[abraxas2]

I'm using 5.6.0

[puffyfluff]

Just to let you guys know, if you want cheap factory-made PCBs, try BatchPCB.  It's a service run by Sparkfun for PCB manufacture.  The prices are $2.50 per square inch on 2-layer boards or $8.00 per square inch for 4-layer boards and a $10 setup fee (all USD).  There's no minimum quantity.  It takes a few weeks depending on when you place the order, but it's still pretty slick.

[simplicio]

What I do to get onboard power connections is to drop "test pads" onto the schematic from the testpad library (e.g. TPSQ/TPSQPAD1-13). That way you get thermals around the pads which makes them easier to solder.

[Dimitrios]

Really nice instructable. I am actually looking for someone who can make a pcb layout. Who can help me? It's a small schematic with 13 components (resistor/diodes/transistors) Like 2" x 2". I am not knowledgeable enough to use a cad program. Anyone who can help me, pls message me with your email so I can email the schematic.

[westfw]

(did I set some kind of record for time gap in between publication and "featuring" ?  About 3 years!  (To be fair, there was no such thing as "featured" back when this was first written.  It makes me wonder what other really good instructables are languishing unnoticed mostly because of their age...))

[joeuhlik]

Why does Eagle want to draw the polygon as line segments rather than as a rectangle as you show?

[westfw]

It'll draw the outline as per the current settings for line-bending and etc as specified for "wires"; to get a rectangle, I usually set the line bend to right angles and draw two "L" shapes.

[diyuser]

How would you tell Eagle not to draw polygons/power planes when auto routing. Just plain wiring.

[westfw]

I don't think Eagle ever creates polygons during autorouting, though it may use any existing polygons as THE route for whatever signals they represent.  I always end up spending a fair amount of time adjusting exactly how the polygons fill; I don't like the way it tends to create "spikes" in the areas between pads, for example.  It all has to be done manually.

[keithongrq]

i've done every thing here and the end result look good but when i save the file and reopen it, the polygon becomes a rectangle made of dotted lines. some help please thanks