How to work with design blocks? Modify a design block?

[JuergenGe]

Hi,

somehow the only feature, that i find personally attractive is the design block concept. However, it seems this is just a nice idea, but poorly implemented. 

1. "Save selection as design block" does not work. I selected something with a group command and then chose this under "Files", but nothing happens.
2. You can save a complete schematic as design block, ok, that at least seems to work. So now i have a design block, but how can i modify it in order to do an update on the design block? 
3. Lets say 2. is solved and i can update a design block and want to update an existing circuit, that is using the design block. How would the update of the design work? What if i had to modify the imported design block (rotate Resistor R1 in order to fit on the PCB), would it update also or stay there?
4. The way it is implemented right now, i can also save a piece of circuit in a .sch and .brd combination and import it to every circuit i want to build.  This is what we are actually doing btw. So where is the benefit of using "design blocks"?

All in all, this reminds me of the "Modules", that Eagle introduced with V7. That idea was also nice, but the implementation was very "unsmart".

Generally i like the idea of reusing layouts and designs as design blocks, but it seems, that you did not think about how to use it really.

How is the concept of generating a design block, adding it to a circuit, modifying it if need be and updating it in the circuit?

If design blocks are just used to add a 0.1uF cap to the vcc line, then these design blocks are just useless. This does not save any significant time. If i would not have to reroute a DC/DC Converter setup on every PCB and bug fixes would be pulled in, then this would be really useful.

Maybe i am missing some options here (!?), but it does not seem to be a very consistent feature that improves my workflow.

BR

[edwin.robledo]

Hi JuergenGW382,

There are a few option you can use to save a desigblock, the first one you clearly discovered by click on 'Save as Desigblock' this will save the entire design including, whichever is available, Board and Schematic.

The following option is File/'Save Selection as Designblock', after this option has been selected, proceed to define a group around the component or components that are going to be used for your block.   You will be able to notice the prompts at the bottom of the page.  Press and hold your left mouse button and define your group.  The group will appear as a dark transparent grey box following you mouse cursor. To subtract items from the block, press and hold the CTRL button and left click items you don't need.

Now press and hold the CTRL + Right click to move on to the next editor.  You will notice items that are currently highlighted from the previous editor.

If you are satisfy with the select press and Hold the CTRL + Right click to make the selection. You will notice that the DesignBlock dialog box will appear.

You can now:

Name the Design Block

Provide Attributes and values to the design block

Description for the designblock

After placing the design block on a design you can make modification to the components or connections that best suit your project.  If you need to make modifications to a designblock, its best to paste into a design (new or existing), make the modification then save that as a new designblock. 

I hope this helps.

Best Regards,

Ed

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hello Edwin,

could please also tell me how to import a design block?

Kind regards,

Daniel

EDIT: I finally found it, just minutes after posting my question. It's the icon just beneath the Delete 'rubbish bin'.

[Anonymous]

Hello Ed,

the problem mentioned above about updating an existing design from a fix in a design block seems unsolved. If I do lots of bugfixes in a design block, how do I update the schematics and layouts that use the particular design block ?

Best,

Mario

[edwin.robledo]

Hi Mario,

Thanks for your forum participation, as you already know, once you place the block on the design it no longer is a single unit.  It becomes independent parts with assigned connections. So the block is basically lost. This enhancements is already being considered. The idea would be to provide your block the option to remain as a block with an identifier. That way updating the block would give you the option to update the design blocks being used on a project. We currently don't have timeline for this. 

With Warm Regards,

Ed

[rada.mar]

Hi @JuergenGe

just an update, I'm using eagle 8.3.2 premium on OSX and the Save Selection as Design Block seems like not working, I've try all your steps and the DesignBlock dialog box never appears.

However if I use the option Save as Design Block it works fine. The selection option generating the design blocks is very handy and would be great to have it working

thanks

[rachaelATWH4]

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@rada.mar wrote:

Hi @JuergenGe

just an update, I'm using eagle 8.3.2 premium on OSX and the Save Selection as Design Block seems like not working, I've try all your steps and the DesignBlock dialog box never appears.

However if I use the option Save as Design Block it works fine. The selection option generating the design blocks is very handy and would be great to have it working

thanks

---

Hi @rada.mar,

I'm also running 8.3.2 Premium on OSX and I just tested it and it appears to be working as expected. Can you please double check that you did everything exactly as per Ed's instructions above?

Also, note that as you are on OSX in the above steps you should use Cmd rather than Ctrl.

Finally, if you have Option.ToggleCtrlForGroupSelectionAndContextMenu set to 1 then you shouldn't hold Cmd at all for this.

Best Regards,

Rachael

[rada.mar]

hi @rachaelATWH4

you were right, I was using Ctrl instruction on the bottom of the screen but need to use the Cmd instead, thanks

[Calvin]

I just found this post which explains why on a MAC this does not seem to work at all if you follow the instructions so thank you. Autodesk can we get this fixed  ?

Thank you 

Calvin

[jorge_garcia2]

Hello @Anonymous,

I hope you're doing well. Some things in designblocks have changed since the beginning of this thread. You can now modify and edit designblocks outside of the context of a normal design. We have a lot of improvements coming in this area this year (improvements to hierarchy, design blocks, and busses to name just a few things).

If you can post a new thread specifying the exact issues or concerns you have, it helps when making enhancement reports if I have a clean specific thread to link to.

Please let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,