I hate Eagle
Hi dknguyen,
I really wonder why you hate Eagle. Eagle is software and you certainly know putting garbage in garbage will come out.
You must under no circumstances change grid sizes with odd numbers, e.g. changing from 0.1inch to 2.5mm the result will be unconnected pins. Changing to the equivalent value of exactly 2.54mm those errors won't occur.
There is an excellent tool within the schematic editor. It's name is ERC for elecrical rule check. Eagle is very accurate and will tell you each unconnected pin.
Even if they might look connected and there are just those 0.04mm missing there won't be a proper connection. Zooming the part with the missing connection you will see that it is actually not connected. Also, as mentioned already use the eye symbol to check each net you have before creating a board. Of course you can see on the board each part including the library you selected it from, the part's name and value etc.
Other than many other PCB design programs Eagle gives you the opportunity to smash parts and move name and value to a position where it's easy to read.
If there is one part missing in one of your libraries which you urgently need, don't hesitate to email me the data sheet including package information. A day later you'll have what you need so desperately.
I've been using Eagle right from the beginning DOS-based and have now v. 3.55 and 4.16. There is nothing much to learn about Eagle and it's done within an hour.
One complaint I have about Eagle: It has a bad autorouter which tends to surround itself and using a fine grid it will draw wierd looking traces and complain about "angle errors" using the DRC (design rule check) produced by CadSoft. I use the autorouter to eliminate the confusing rats nest temporarily and ripup the hole thing after I've reorganized the parts for shortest possible connections. After that I route manually using the proper grid size.
Generally a grid size of 0.635mm (0.025inch) is sufficient for general purpose boards. If MCUs and other ICs are involved the grid size should be 0.3175mm (0.0125inch). Using a smaller grid size like 0.15875mm the display will round to the nearest value for four decimals indicating 0.1788, but internally will use exactly that grid.
I've tried many PCB editors and none was so easy to learn like Eagle. CadSoft could put in some updated libraries from time to make it easier for Eagle users.
Here is a sample of a library which I made for one member of this forum. May be you can use it to. The package is very accurate to within 1/1000mm and it took me just 30 minutes to make it. If this file type is not allowed I'll zip it and post it tomorrow.
Email
hjzelec@freenet.de for help using Eagle.
Kind regards
Hans