Basic Tools in Cadsoft Eagle

You can see number of icons in tool bar of Cadsoft Eagle, like this

But for Basic PCB designing it is not necessary to know all this thing. Here i will list out some of the basic tools we are going to use for Single and Double layer PCB Designing.

ADD COMPONENTS

Selecting this Icon will open the library window you can browse and select your required components.

MOVE

Use this icon if you want to move or rotate a component, you can also move wires(connections), 

COPY

Use this icon if you want copy a component, after selecting this icon just a left click on the component will copy it to clipboard. you can click n number of times to create n number of copies

MIRROR

This icon will help you to create a mirror image of a component or a whole PCB layout. To take mirror image of whole circuit diagram you have to use GROUP icon first to select whole layout.

GROUP 

Group icon will help you to select a group of components or a portion of your circuit diagram. after grouping you Copy, move or rotate the group. 

For copying a group 

Select group icon >> Select portion you want to copy >> Select Copy icon >> Right Click on the select portion >> Select Group copy 

Similiarly for group move and group rotate.

WIRE

Used to interconnect terminals. 

NAME

You can change the Name of a component or Name of a connection using this icon.

VALUE

You can change the Value of a component or Value of a connection using this icon.

LAYERS

You can hide unwanted layers using this icon. hiding unwanted layers will help to see things clearly. if you want to check connections in top layer, you can hide bottom layer to make you job easy.

VIEW

This icon is used to check connection. This icon will highlight all connecting node when you select a node.

GRID

Grid is used for scaling purpose. with this you can select minimum movement of your cursor. i personally use 1mm grid. because it is easy to calculate size of pcb. you need to reduce grid when dealing with smaller components.

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