Eagle Cad questions

The logical way to do it is to make a new library device (.DEV) where the package (.PAC) has only pads and a label.

The CadSoft site has a wealth of information (including 2 newsgroups where you can find very specific knowledge about EAGLE-related things). Lurking on those groups will be worthwhile.

Maybe somebody has created these library elements and uploaded the .LBR there.

Perhaps the manufacturer has them for download. Google the site with the search term *LBR*.

I use Protel, rather than Eagle.

For off-board parts, I show them on the schematic as usual, but give them a "footprint" (PC pad pattern) that is convenient - not necessarily related to the off-board component's shape.

I don't know the extent of Eagle's library, but I rarely make a board in Protel without making a new schematic component or PCB footprint (and I've been using Protel for years!) With Protel, it is often much easier to make a new part (schematic or PCB) than to search through the libraries to see if what I want already exists.

In my 1st post, I missed what you were saying .

To show (on the schematic) that a part is not located on the PCB, show the edge of the board as a heavy dashed line with the on-board parts on 1 side of the line and the chassis-mount / panel-mount parts on the other.

There is more to a schematic these days, than just being pretty and readable. There is a need for a schematic to represent 1-to-1 what is on a PCB. If one does as you say, he will get a bunch of parts in his netlist that don't exist on the PC board.

That is why the hierarchical schematic was created. On the top level, you include the things that are wired to the PCB, and the PCB shown as a block part. When you descend into that block, you get the schematic of what is on the PCB.

-Chuck

In the real world, yes. He sounds like a newbie hobbyist to me. Mine is a workable solution for his needs. Lots of Tektronix manuals (et al) look as I describe.

Of course, and Tektronix maintained a large herd of draftsmen for the longest time to draw up those schematics and layout those PC boards by hand.

It doesn't relate well to modern cad tools... even those available to "newbie hobbyists"

-Chuck

A newbie! LOL.

Yes, I haven't done much of this stuff in 20 years. Even then, I taped up the few boards I etched. I preferred wirewrap or Vero.

I could have taped up 3 boards with the time I've spent on Eagle. But I thought it would be a good learning experience. I think I'll be looking for something else though, the funky interface is one thing, but the bugs are another. I've got identical circuits in the schematic that have different signal paths in the layout editor. No amount of dicking around has fixed this.

Thanks for the help Jeff/Chuck.

Hi Bill,

One thing that often causes problems like you are describing is placing a wire with the wire overlapping the pin. This (depending on the program) isn't always obvious from just looking at the screen, or a print of the screen. However, there should be an Electronic Rules Checker (ERC) program that finds problems like this.

Best of luck,

-Chuck

i just put a text label and pads, then i place the pads on the pcb.