wanted: tips for pcb layout

[guitchess]

I use Eagle for my schematics and for the most part it works great, but it takes me too long to achieve a working layout, and even then it is not exactly elegant.  I would love some tips to speed this step up.

I just got some dual sided copper clad so I'm anxious to try my hand ata two layer board. The time it takes in software is much shorter, as long as I can properly align the masks. Tips on this subject are appreciated as well.

Thanks

[filip_cro]

TIP #1: Stop using Eagle. Clicking on icon to show shortest path or to view ground plane is slow and stupid. (try KiCad....)

TIP #2:Focus on components layout. Make small and critical connections first.

[IvoS]

I use Diptrace. I found this soft to be the most intuitive and logical program for quick draw. I tried Eagle and KiCad as well but I didn't like them personally. Kicad is so awkward to me, it drove me nuts trying to place some parts from library but I guess it is also about getting use to it and personal preference. Eagle free version is I believe limited to 100x100mm size. You can do any size 2 layer PCB in Diptrace up to 300pin count.

[Rerouter]

I've not used eagle myself, (kicad, and express pcb straight to printer) but the basic tips are group your components into the main function blocks, do the critical layout and routing in those function blocks, then start tying the blocks together,

this has done me well on even a few of my larger and smaller (stupidly dense 25x25mm) projects, as by keeping the respective blocks tied together there should be less signals needed to be routed to other sections

Run your sensitive or critical traces between these modules first, trying to leave a way to snake out other traces on both sides for later routing.
Lay out your plugs and connectors in logical places, remembering you can still shift these, but it will help to plan your layout.

[jucole]

Tips on this subject are appreciated as well.

Not sure if you've read this article Dave wrote on PCB design; well worth a read!

http://alternatezone.com/electronics/pcbdesign.htm

[Alana]

And one more thing - learn user interface of your program of choice - especially keyboard shortcuts. This really speeds up work if you learn the most used by heart.

[zapta]

TIP #1: Stop using Eagle. Clicking on icon to show shortest path or to view ground plane is slow and stupid. (try KiCad....)

Recently I needed to do a small PCB. Following the recommendations here I skipped eagle and try to use DipTrace. Things did not go very well. It did not run on my computer of choice (MAC OSX  10.8.5, apparently DipTrace uses Wine emulation) so I switched to a Windows machine,  then it was unstable (I lost few footprints I made because schematic editor was open while I used the footprint editor) and the stock libraries were  limited (e.g. had to manually define simple 0.1" pin headers).  I gave up half way, installed Eagle and everything went very smooth. Made a few mental adaptation to the UI  (I prefer to select the object and then the operation, not the other way around) but it is obvious that Eagle is a more mature product.

[guitchess]

That is excellent. Just what i was looking for. Thank you for the post. 

[axero]

I just did some research on the topic and here are a few other options:

Free software
DesignSpark PCB
PCB Artist

Commercial software
Altium Designer (or just Altium)
Proteus
Pulsonix (pro version of PCB Artist / DesignSpark)
Easy-PC (semi-pro version of ditto)

Eagle is considered to be one of the most mature programs out there with extensive component libraries. It should be noted however, that some of the other programs can import component libraries from Eagle.

People seem to find Altium to currently be the best piece of software. It would be interesting to get to know more about how good these programs are at typesetting the diagrams for printing; if I want to produce printable schematics, will they be ugly pixelized p.o.s. drawings, or will they use proper vector graphics with beautifully designed symbols (for caps, resistances, inductances, logic circuits etc...) with the capability to use different colors to make it easier to interpret the schematics...?