Hiding Airwires in Eagle

[Thermal Runaway]

Hi everyone,

Today I have wrestled with the problem of how to hide the airwires while laying out a board in Eagle.  To demonstrate the problem, see the picture below which illustrates how difficult it is to make sense of component location with multiple airwires criss-crossing all over the place.

I failed to even locate my components properly underneath this mess, let alone set about the task of routing tracks.  Ideally what we need to be able to do here is to hide all airwires except those associated with the component you're working on.  I could not find any option for this.  However, I did find a way to hide ALL the air wires, using the command:

ratsnest ! *

This results in the image below - much clearer for locating my components:

You can also use specific net names in place of the asterix to hide certain nets.

I still think it would be much better if there was a setting to hide all airwires except those associated with the component you're working on.  Does anyone know if this is possible?

Brian H

[Mechatrommer]

that airwires is ratnest. you hide ratnest, you hide airwires.

[Thermal Runaway]

that airwires is ratnest. you hide ratnest, you hide airwires.

Yes I already know that, as demonstrated by the information in my original post.

BrianH

[TheDirty]

The only way I can think of doing this is cutting the nets in your schematics until you are ready to route them.

[Alex]

EAGLE does not have such an option.

Alex

[hans]

You can also hide layer 19: Unrouted, no need to use commands.
Simple as that.

I don't think eagle can differentiate between components though.

[KeithBrown]

You can hide airwires only on a per signal basis. I could say that if airwires are hiding your component then perhaps your placement is poor. If you turn off the  airwires for ground and power suplies you should have a much cleaner screen. Instead of using ratsnest ! signal_name, you can use the info command on a signal (airwire or trace) in the board window and you will see a check box "Airwires hidden" for that signal in the popup "Properties" window. Click on it and all airwires for that signal will be gone.

[ChrisPhoenix]

Go here: http://www.cadsoftusa.com/downloads/user-language-programs/
and look for "hide-airwires.ulp".

"Hides airwires selected via the GROUP command during routing. Simply select the airwires to hide with the group command and run this ULP. Use 'RATS *' at the command prompt to show all airwires."