In this Gerber tutorial, I will teach you how to create the files you need for a 2-layer board using Cadsoft Eagle. After you have completed this tutorial you will have all the necessary files needed to send to most PCB manufacturers.
Eagle Schematic/PCB/libs can be imported, but EasyEDA can only support version 6 and later (6+) because that was when Version 6 Eagle adopted an ASCII XML data structure as their native file format. If your Eagle file can be open in Eagle, but can’t be imported in EasyEDA, you can save as a copy with the latest Eagle, and then import it. Eagle How-to¶ Quick guide on exporting PCB designs from Eagle and importing them into FlatCAM. This guide was made with Eagle version 7.2.0 Light and FlatCAM 8.2. Most designs start with schematics of your circuit: Then by clicking on File→Switch to board, the board editor is opened and you can complete your layout. Resulting PCB projects, with opened schematic and PCB documents after importing EAGLE.pcb and.sch design files. Post-Import Considerations. After importing your EAGLE design files, it is fairly common to check and possibly change a few things. The following is an example of a post-import procedure that may be undertaken.
This tutorial is out of date. I have switched to KiCad, so I recommend the updated tutorial How to Create Gerber Files in KiCad.
The.pcb file extension is known as a printed circuit board file wherein Printed Circuit Board deals with electrical components and their connections. Printed Circuit Boards are usually used in manufacturing cell phones as well as other equipments and the.pcb files are used for them to function. The KiCad project is proud to announce the support for importing Eagle projects. This is the outcome of work to complete the Eagle schematic file plugin and integrate it with the Eagle board file plugin. From the new 'Import Project' menu entry in the KiCad launcher users may now select an Eagle schematic or board file and the new project name and location, after which the corresponding Eagle.
In Eagle, open Board view. Click the “CAM” button or choose “File->CAM Processor”. This will open the CAM Processor tool that is used to generate the files.
Here you can define the sections you want to create files for.
But you don’t really need to understand this. Actually I have never really thought about the details of this until I was writing this article. I have just been using ready-made configurations. And that is probably what you want to do as well.
To simplify creating Gerber files, Eagle comes with a predefined job for this. It is called gerb274x.cam.
(Note: If you want to order PCBs from Seeed Studio’s Fusion PCB service, you should instead download their own CAM-file from the bottom of their submission guidelines page. Be aware that this will give you different file names than the ones listed below in this article.)
To open it in the CAM Processor click “File->Open->Job…”
Browse to your …/eagle/cam/ folder, and you should see a file called gerb274x.cam. Choose it and click “Open”.
You will now see five tabs in the CAM Processor. Each of these tabs will generate a Gerber file.
If you look at the tabs, you will see that you don’t have a file for silk screen bottom. For simple boards, the silk screen is usually on the top layer so that you don’t need the bottom. Some of the cheap circuit board manufacturers don’t even allow bottom silk screen.
But if you need silk screen on bottom layer as well, follow these steps:
There you go.
Select where you want to put the Gerber files by clicking on the “File” button and choosing a folder. Do this for all the tabs.
Then click “Process Job”. This creates your Gerber files.
Even though drilling is supported by the Gerber format, manufacturers usually want the Excellon file format for specifying drill holes. Luckily, Eagle also comes with a predefined job for creating a drill file.
(Note: This step is automatically done if you’re using the CAM-file from Seeed Studio that I linked to in step 2.)
Open it in the CAM Processor by clicking “File->Open->Job…”
Browse to your …/eagle/cam/ folder, and open the file named “excellon.cam”.
Select where to put the output file by clicking on the “File” button.
Then click “Process Job” to create your Excellon file.
You should now have the following files:
After you have created each gerber file, you should always look at them using a Gerber viewer to make sure everything is ok.
This Gerber tutorial shows one way of creating the files you need. Even though this should be OK for many PCB manufacturers, you might find that some would want the files created in a slightly different way. If so, don’t worry, they will probably provide you with a Job file you can load directly into Eagle or at least have a good explanation on how to do it on their website.
Check out more articles on PCB design by clicking this link:
Return from Gerber File to PCB Design
Autodesk EAGLE ships with a ton of free libraries right out of the box, but for some, that might be a bit of a problem. Ever heard of the illusion of choice? When you are given too many options, you don’t end up choosing any! What if you have a particular project that you want to work on from Sparkfun or Adafruit and just need to use their specific parts?
Thankfully there’s a solution. This is where the Sparkfun and Adafruit parts libraries come in handy, providing you with all the parts you need for a project without any of the clutter. Let’s learn how to use these libraries in Autodesk EAGLE!
To get started, you’ll need to download the Sparkfun and/or Adafruit libraries from their respective Github pages. Here’s how:
Use the green Clone or download button to easily download your Sparkfun and Adafruit libraries from Github.
Where you choose to store your Sparkfun and Adafruit library folders is entirely up to you. To keep everything in one place, we decided to make a new folder in our documents directory called eagle_external_lbrs and then we added two Sparkfun and Adafruit library folders.
Now that your new Sparkfun and Adafruit libraries have a new home on your computer’s hard drive, it’s time to update your EAGLE directory so they can be found. Follow these steps to make it happen:
Before You Start Deleting Files, Read This! Instead of removing the $EAGLEDIR/lbr: path, you’ll add your new file path after the default directory, using either a semicolon (;) on Windows or a colon (:) on Mac. Your new Libraries file path will look something like this: $EAGLEDIR/lbr:/Users/<name>/Documents/eagle_external_lbrs /Users/<name>/Documents/eagle_external_lbrs is where we happened to store our new libraries, but your path name will likely be different. Need an easy way to get your path name? Check out this guide for Mac and this guide for Windows. |
When you reopen Autodesk EAGLE, check out the Libraries folder in your Control Panel and you should see your newly added folder(s).
Here’s how your Libraries directory will look after adding your new Sparkfun and Adafruit libraries.
Before you can start using your Sparkfun and Adafruit libraries, you’ll need to activate them in Autodesk EAGLE. Here’s how to do it:
Use all action to make your Sparkfun and Adafruit libraries ready for use.
You’ll know that you successfully activated one of your new libraries by looking inside each folder. If you see a green dot next to each part, then this means they’re ready for action!
Not sure if your libraries are active? Just look for the green dot!
One thing to keep in mind – If you only want to use your new Sparkfun or Adafruit libraries but not your default EAGLE libraries then you’ll need to deactivate these. To do this
You’ll know this worked by looking inside the lbr folder. If you see a gray dot next to each part library, then you have successfully deactivated them!
Got a gray dot next to a library? That means it’s deactivated and won’t show up in your searches.
That’s all there is to it, three simple steps to get up and running with your new Sparkfun and Adafruit libraries! If you select the Add icon in an open Autodesk EAGLE project, then you should be greeted with all of your fancy new libraries, ready for use. Working with only the libraries that you need for a particular project will help you to be way more efficient in your design process. No more scouring through endless folders just to find the right electrolytic capacitor!
Ready to get started with using your very own Sparkfun and Adafruit libraries in your next PCB design software project? Try Autodesk EAGLE for free today!