TURNING SCHEMATIC INTO LAYOUT
If you’ve been following along in our Schematic Design Series, then you should have a complete schematic that looks like ours below.
Our complete LED Flasher schematic that we’ll be turning into a PCB layout.
To convert your schematic to a PCB layout
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Open your schematic project from the Autodesk EAGLE Control Panel.
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At the top of your interface, select the SCH/BRD
icon. This will begin the process of generating a PCB layout based on the components and wiring in your schematic. -
Select Yes if you get a warning dialog saying that the .brd file doesn’t exist and that you want to create it from your schematic.
That’s it! You should now have a second Autodesk EAGLE window open that looks similar to ours below.
When you turn your schematic into a PCB layout file, you’ll get a new window that looks like this.
This is your blank PCB layout canvas where you will start your PCB design journey. Let’s take a moment to talk about what you see in case this is entirely new to you. Here are a few things to make a note of:
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The white square outline that you see represents the physical dimensions of your board layout. This is the area you’ll place all of your components.
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All of your components currently rest outside of this square outline. The next stage of the layout process is moving each and every piece into this area.
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You’ll also notice a bunch of lines connecting between your components. These are called airwires. You might also hear it referred to as a ratsnest. These airwires help you understand your component connectivity.
Now, let’s start moving and rotating your parts within the board space.