[SOLVED] How to remove unused/phatom lines in Eagle .brd file? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: prasimix
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 25, 2018, 10:45:27 am
content: I've startedlength.ulpout of curiosity and found a tons of phantom zero-length traces/lines in my .brd file! I can recognize some names from previous projects, that were include parts that could be related to names of that phantoms. Design integrity is not compromised, but I'm wondering how to get rid of that garbage. Here is an excerpt in table form of that I have found:

author: Karel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2018, 12:48:56 pm
content: Why are you using such an old version? Your license will allow you to use the latest V6.x.x which is V6.6.0.In case you use the free version, switch to V7.7.0.ftp://ftp.cadsoft.de/eagle/program/

author: jpanhalt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2018, 01:15:35 pm
content: I checked a couple of old brd files in 7.2 and 7.7 and did not see that when running length.ulp; although, I hadn't used the ulp before.When you re-route something, do you ripup and then re-route? What happens if you ripup, do ratsnest, then re-route? Just thinking about how Eagle works.Also, are those phantom nets in the current schematic?John

author: prasimix
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 25, 2018, 01:22:42 pm
content: I'm using 6.1 and 7.5. I tried to run the same .ulp on the 7.5 but result is the same, what is not surprising since when I opened .brd with text editor I can see that such phantoms really exists. See below:

author: prasimix
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 25, 2018, 01:26:55 pm
content: Quote from: jpanhalt on January 25, 2018, 01:15:35 pmYes, I'm ripup and then start a new route. If your question is possibly related to autorouter, it is not applicable here since I never used it.Quote from: jpanhalt on January 25, 2018, 01:15:35 pmCannot find them in .sch file. Strange!

author: jpanhalt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2018, 01:45:06 pm
content: DRG is OK, I presume.It is hard to imagine how or why Eagle would keep nets that have been deleted. I will see if I can duplicate it, but that may take awhile.

author: prasimix
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 25, 2018, 01:57:14 pm
content: Quote from: jpanhalt on January 25, 2018, 01:45:06 pmSure.Quote from: jpanhalt on January 25, 2018, 01:45:06 pmYes, hard to imagine and it open a question what else is not consistent or broken in similar way. I'll try to remove manually all reported phantoms and check what Eagle will report when I open .brd file again.

author: jpanhalt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2018, 02:12:03 pm
content: I was able to duplicate it faster than I thought, but what I did may not be applicable to your case.In brief, I found an old board that had several "off-board" components, e.g., a display and XBee module. Looking only at the XBee module, there were no nets on the schematic for it, but of course, it had a device associate with it. The ground on that device was named "GND(7)" automatically by Eagle. Since there were no nets, the brd didn't show any airwires either. However, length.ulp found it and gave it 0 length.With "show GND(7)" it was highlighted in the brd (attached below).Then, when I deleted the device from the schematic, the zero-length net disappeared from the length.ulp listing.Hopes that helps.John

author: prasimix
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 25, 2018, 02:26:20 pm
content: That makes sense. I managed to manually clean up my .brd from all phantoms. They can be easily recognized since they don't contain anything between <signal name=></signal>. For example, one of my phantom was INV_GND that was recorded in .brd file as:<signal name="INV_GND"></signal>I seems that Eagle needs a more efficient housekeeping procedure to clean up its files. Case closed.

author: jpanhalt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2018, 02:31:41 pm
content: Oddly, in my case, it was found on the schematic by the command dialog, but not highlighted, so you wouldn't know what to remove.Glad you got it solved.

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 26, 2018, 03:14:55 pm
content: Glad you got things tidied up -- although having to do it manually (in the text file, I assume?) is annoying. Out of curiosity: Have you tried whether "OPTIMIZE *" gets rid of the zero-length traces?

author: jpanhalt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 26, 2018, 03:30:41 pm
content: In my experiment, I don't think that would help, because it was caused by a pin name on a device that corresponded to a net name but was not connected to that net (e.g., GND).Obvious question: Why include a device on the schematic that I didn't connect properly? Answer: I wanted the device on the board so I could check geometry. Unconnected devices were removed before I generated files to submit to get boards made.I suspect the cause for prasimix's problem might have some relation to that but was not identical.