Viewing bottom of PCB in Eagle

[rx8pilot]

Does anyone know of a way to view the bottom of the PCB while doing layout? Essentially flipping the board over?

[Prime73]

as far as I can tell - nope.  I usually just turn off a top layer if it blocks something on a bottom layer

[rx8pilot]

Sure wish that was an option. Not fatal, but it can be a pain for sure. The PCB I am working on now is a 2-side design and the bottom side has about 100 components with reversed desiccators that are hard to read. There are also mechanical obstacles that I need to keep in mind, so I have to 'reverse my mind'.

Looking forward to the day I can graduate to a higher-end solution. Eagle has served me well at the early end of the PCB layout learning curve - hopefully I can move up. 

[Monkeh]

It's a much desired feature. If we can't have 3D we could at least be able to see the board properly in 2D.

[Wilksey]

I tend to turn the top layers off, place components, flip, mirror and change layer, depending on what I need to do and how I need it displayed.  Then turn top layer back on, not ideal, but you get used to it.

[zapta]

You can upload your .brd file to oshpark.com and view it.

[rx8pilot]

The goal is to flip it during design to relieve my brain from having do it. I suspect this is not a problem in Altium Designer?

[Tac Eht Xilef]

Have a look at the mirror-board and mirror-board-remirror-element-swap-layer ULPs.

They're not ideal by any means (e.g. you'll have issues with locked components) but are OK for quick checks. Best save a version before use though...

[Howardlong]

After a while your head just gets used to it. For very dense layouts (e.g. 100 parts/sq in) you pretty much have to be able to visualise parts on the top and bottom simultaneously to figure out your part and via placement especially when four or more layers and cannot use blind or buried vias for price reasons.

[zapta]

The goal is to flip it during design to relieve my brain from having do it. I suspect this is not a problem in Altium Designer?

Use a mirror?

[MarkL]

I select the bottom layer items I want to view, then use the "Print to file (PDF)" and click the "Mirror" box.  Then view in a PDF reader.

It's fine for checking your work, but it's not very convenient and not at all interactive.  I still want the flip feature.

[Christopher]

AFAIK, no.

I was once told "any pcb design tool worth it's weight will be able to flip the board" by an Altium salesman

Ever since that bloody Altium bloke gave me a free trial I've hated eagle.

[Jeroen3]

Assign a key (F8 for example) to the mirror-board.ulp?
Don't forget you've mirrored the board, because the board got actually mirrored.

[rx8pilot]

Assign a key (F8 for example) to the mirror-board.ulp?
Don't forget you've mirrored the board, because the board got actually mirrored.

I will try this as an experiment, however, I am quite nervous that something is likely to get messed up during translation. changing the actual layout seems like using a sledge hammer to drive a thumb tack.