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Eagle pcb toner transfer

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breadboardguy

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I have installed eagle cad software, but even after i read trough some instructables, i cant get to get a pcb valid for toner transfer...

How can you modify the traces widths? I mean, it needs to show up on the screen, so i can send it in gimp software.
How can i add cooper to fill between the traces?

Some other people seem to have managed to do it, but i do not...

Thank for your time
 
Try asking one question at a time and be as specific as you can. The learning curve is high, but once you get it down, it's not hard.

The parameters for whatever you are doing are at the top of the screen, so if you are laying down traces, the width parameter is up there and you can change it when you are drawing. If you want to change it after the fact in the board editor, select edit->change->width->(select the width value you want) then click on traces and they will resize to the selected width.

The copper filling is called a 'copper pour' or a 'ground plane'. If you search for Eagle tutorials on those, it might help. Select the polygon tool. Draw around the edges of you board until the ends connect, select 'ratsnest' to fill it in. You want to rename the polygon with edit->name->click on the polygon edge and rename it to the same net name as your ground (GND, or VSS).

Do you need to use gimp? You can print right from Eagle. You can mirror it and make it full black/solid; the print function is made to be toner transfer or photo transfer template friendly. Make sure you use the display tool to turn off the layers you don't want to print.

EDIT: Oh yeah, if you aren't doing schematic -> board layout, you should. Trying to go just directly to board layout is really bad practice you'll want to do the process correctly from the start.
 
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Thank you a lot Dirtylude,

I just need to print the pcb at the school's laser printer, can i export it on word at scale and then upload it on yahoo to send it to myself and print it over there? How can i ensure that i have 1:1 scale?

And how can i avoid having to click on each trace to make it bigger? I i use autoroute .
 
^Like 3V0 said.

Also, don't use autoroute. Lay the traces yourself. The autorouter is terrible and should only be used if you know what you are doing with it.

Grouping things is one of the most quirky UI things in Eagle. You use the select tool, click and drag across the whole board to select everything. Once everything is selected do the edit->change->width->(select the width value you want) the hold ctrl and right click on one of the traces and it will apply the change to everything selected.
 
If you can not print on the same computer create a pdf file by slelecting pdf in the print dialog box.

I have created a pdf file of an existing PCB layout and it turned out distorted on the print. If the board length is adapted (scaled) for the real value the width becomes too large.

Better install Eagle on the host device, print the layout and delete (uninstall) the software when done.

Boncuk

P.S. You might install Eagle on a USB-stick and run the software on the host.
 
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P.S. You might install Eagle on a USB-stick and run the software on the host.

This is very good advice. You can run eagle direclty from the USB drive so you don't have to install it on every new computer you use. I was using Eagle for over a year before I realized this was the way to go. I have my Eagle and all my projects past and present on a USB drive that I take with me pretty much everywhere. Just remember to back it up often. Even if you only use a few computers and Eagle is installed on all of them as you change or create libraries, carrying it around on a USB drive ensure you'll always have the correct versions.
 
P.S. You might install Eagle on a USB-stick and run the software on the host.
Depending on how anal your company's IT department is this may, or may not, be a good idea!
Where I work, I'd lose my computer privileges at the very least if I attempted to run unauthorized software on a networked machine. Maybe even get fired if an virus or worm wrecked havoc on the system.
Export as a pdf or image file and email it to yourself at work. Do a test print and check that it scaled properly before doing any ironing.
 
Thank you a lot Dirtylude,

I just need to print the pcb at the school's laser printer, can i export it on word at scale and then upload it on yahoo to send it to myself and print it over there? How can i ensure that i have 1:1 scale?

And how can i avoid having to click on each trace to make it bigger? I i use autoroute .

One word of advice. You said you were going to use the laser printer at your school. In my experience, I have had much greater success making PCBs from images that I printed onto the transfer paper using copiers over laser printers. I'm not sure what the deal is but I consistently get better results from the copier over the laser printer. Before I came to this conclusion, I bought a used laser printer so I could make transfer images at home and not have to rely on the printer at work. It worked like crap. In the past when I have used printers sometimes I couldn't even get something big like a .1" pitch DIP IC to transfer. Just recently using a copier I got an MSOP-10 footprint succesfully transferred and etched. Maybe the two use different kinds of toner or they operate at different temperatures. I wish I knew.
 
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