topic Re: EAGLE Developer Poll: Do you use the white background for PCB editor? in EAGLE Forum

EAGLE Developer Poll: Do you use the white background for PCB editor?

matt.berggren — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 06:44:50 GMT

Hi Folks --

Controversial question for you all (never afraid to be a lightening rod for a little controversy 🙂 --

How many of you use the white color scheme in the PCB editor? And what do you use it for? We're making a number of changes in the layer colors department and having a sense for how you use the options for layer colors (or rather: whether you use the various color palettes or just stick to one) is a subject that could influence our thinking a bit.

Personally, having logged 10's of thousands of hours (perhaps 100's of thousands) building boards, I'm not sure I've ever used a white background for PCB editing (though I'm old enough to have done it on DOS). For schematic? Yes. Almost always white (since OrCAD went to white in the 90s). But PCB? Never. However I'm one guy in and amongst thousands...So I dont want to take my word for it. Thus, your feedback is welcome! Please be clear on why / what you're using it for.

Thank you!

Best regards,

Matt - Autodesk

Re: EAGLE Developer Poll: Do you use the white background for PCB editor?

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 07:29:23 GMT

Nope, prefer black background. Find it easier to distinguish between the working layers and understand the layout (contrast). I personally tend to stay with one color palette for consistency and tend to match that palette against gerber validation tools. Personal preference.

The only time I've used a white background was in my Altium days when I had a documentation layer. I only used that layer - turned on - when I intended to print (to pdf). No particular reason other than perhaps a more realistic view of what the print would look like. Otherwise that layer was OFF.

Interestingly, I too recall doing boards in DOS so perhaps I'm just old school as well.

Re: EAGLE Developer Poll: Do you use the white background for PCB editor?

one-of-the-robs — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 08:04:22 GMT

Another habitual black background for the board / white for the schematic here. It feels more natural to me - possibly a hang over from having been a Seetrax Ranger user on Windows 3.1 many years back. I do also agree with Kevin that the black scheme seems to give better contrast / distinguishability for the board layers.

Re: EAGLE Developer Poll: Do you use the white background for PCB editor?

C.Nicks — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 08:40:10 GMT

Black all the way, both schematic and board editors.

Although recently I started playing with the colored palette to enable the board to be slightly colored green while the background canvas set to black.

Re: EAGLE Developer Poll: Do you use the white background for PCB editor?

rachaelATWH4 — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 11:04:45 GMT

Black for both schematic and board for me too and I'd like more option to make other widow features darker plus show black backgrounds in the control panel previews.

Best Regards,

Rachael

Re: EAGLE Developer Poll: Do you use the white background for PCB editor?

havlicek6TH3H — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 11:59:09 GMT

I use white background in board when I export image of board. Typical use - Visible layers - dimension, tdoc, tplace, tnames + white background + export image, monochrome. It´s only use for white background for me

Re: EAGLE Developer Poll: Do you use the white background for PCB editor?

TrippyLighting — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 16:15:24 GMT

Black in board and white in schematic.

On a side note:

The average work year has 2000 hour, Assuming you are such a hard worker you worked 3000 doing really JUST board design you might have accrued 90,000 hours over 30 years. While that certainly would be a lot, it wouldn't be the plural of 100000 and I know of no business organization and most certainly large organizations such as AD where you can do JUST board design.

Re: EAGLE Developer Poll: Do you use the white background for PCB editor?

matt.berggren — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 16:30:58 GMT

Thanks for that! And in fairness, I didn’t check my math. :). But having spent 20 years in ECAD, I don’t think I have gone less than 4 hours a day in any eCAD tool for the last 10 years. ...Still, my math leaves something to be desired. I should know by now that with engineers as customers, my math will be scrutinized (and I would do the same). 😄 😄 😄

Re: EAGLE Developer Poll: Do you use the white background for PCB editor?

jorge_garcia — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 16:43:05 GMT

I use white background in both the schematic and the board editor. Yep, I use white background on all of my editors.