I'm about to learn Eagle for a project of mine. I've never done PCB design before. Where can I learn some basics?
I will have a PhD check my design and make modifications if necessary. Problem is, he works with Cadence a lot. Are Eagle files easily convertible to Cadence?
thanks
Lets start with the basics of PCB layout.
Dave actually published a very good article more than 12 years ago.
Here is a link to it (
http://www.alternatezone.com/electronics/files/PCBDesignTutorialRevA.pdf). Most of it is still relevant even today and that is a good start.
In regard to choosing Eagle ... yeah ... I will have to say as a "Professional Eagle User" (and when I say that, I say that with a huge amount of sarcasm as my little company was one of those that was stupid enough to pay top dollar for the premium product) ... I can't in good conscience recommend the product as the vendor (Autodesk) is pretty much not to trusted in any way, shape or form.
In regard to package ... I really would start with KiCad. To put that recommendation into perspective, I've been using Eagle since v4 ... and that has been a long time so for us to ditch the product (which is what we are *still* in the process of doing) is a huge undertaking - both in terms of time and cost.
For low cost commercial, Diptrace isn't half bad.
Full blown Altium if you have the cash to burn (CircuitStudio is "ok" but I'm definitely not a fan).
This of course is all my own opinion so take it with a very large grain of salt. Others opinions will definitely differ on what package to use though I think most will generally agree that Eagle is now *not* the way to go - for all intents and purposes, Autodesk has killed it and have screwed over quite a number of their existing user base in doing it, which is a bit of a shame as up till (and including v7), Eagle was actually reasonably good for what it did (though it does have its fair share of quirks).
/BGM