Features of EasyEDA PCB layout program? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: zenerbjt
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2020, 10:31:55 am
content: Dear Engineers,Please tell if EasyEDA has ability to do "multiple diff pair bus routing, with length matching"?Also, what about "interactive design rule checking"....where the package will flash a track red if you move it too close to a different net?Also...I watched the following EasyEDA tutorial and found that this package is not so good with footprint creation.EasyEDA PCB layout tuorialhttps://youtu.be/utBQqcuOt9UAt 9:34, the orator places pads consecutively at 0.8mm distance from each other…..to do this, he has to insert 0.8, 1.6, 2.4…..etc etc into the Y coordinate….thats a faff!In Eagle, all you have to do is set your grid to 0.8mm…then simply copy and paste pads at 0.8mm spacing.Also, at 10:09 when he places the perpendicular pads of the multi pin chip, he has to do maths based on multiple datasheet dimensions. Simple mistakes can come into this. In Eagle, you dont do any maths or datasheet reading……all you have to do is find the geometric centre of the first two columns of pads. –This is easily done using 0.005mm construction lines ( which are not even available in easyEDA)….then copy and paste the first two pad rows, then rotate them 90degs, then place them on the same centre as the first rows of pads.In EasyEDA you’re going to need separate excel spreadsheets showing footprint calculations…not so in Eagle.Would you agree that EasyEDA appears inferior to eagle in these ways?

author: rrinker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 18, 2020, 08:36:41 pm
content: Well, the price is right.I created a custom footprint for a pushbutton switch I used in my project that only comes in solder tail. It's an illuminated button, so it has 4 pins, and the spacing is not equal to act as a key (illumination is via LED, so obviously polarity matters). Yes, I had to do a few calculations from the datasheet, but as an engineer, simple math is pretty simple. It came out perfectly fine the first time around. It was a small board to solder a pair of switches to, and then connect via an RJ45 jack. I did spend an extra day going over it again and again to make sure I had the right pins of the RJ45 connected to the right switch pins, and then since this was the first time IO did a panelized board from JLC, I was a little confused how it only shows one with the rest blank, but what I got was exactly what I wanted and the oblong holes and all lined up perfectly to insert the pushbuttons.This is only the third PCB I have ever made. I'm working on another one where I will make another custom footprint to use as a front panel, the pushbuttons are snap in panel mount, so if I lay out proper diameter holes and use silkscreen labels, I can make a very nice front panel. And then reuse the previous footprint behind the switches for the wiring.I previously tried KiCad, and I REALLY wanted to like it, but the way it works just wasn't for me, I guess. The last schematic capture I worked with was an old DOS version of OrCad I used in college, 32 years ago. I've used other non-EE CAD programs for things over the years, and I guess the EasyEDA flow is more suited to the way I work. Plus between the LCSC parts and community contributed ones, those buttons are so far the only thing I had to create a schematic symbol and PCB footprint for. I'm just doing realtively slow speed digital stuff - 8 bit micros, RS484, SPI, etc., so any lack of highly advanced features isn't much of a concern.