SHOW function/command

[Anonymous]

Do you have any plans to make the "show" command to show colours in more obvious/clear ways, as an example as Mentor Graphics PADS which lights up nets in WHITE (picture example) instead of as in Eagle (att least earlier versions) which highlights the nets very dull, almost not at all both in the schematics (which is almost impossible to even notice!) but also in the PCB, which though is a little bit better but far from optimized. I contacted Cadsoft a few times about this a few years ago but they preferred to never even reply. Or have I missed something in the Eagle setup?

[edwin.robledo · Accepted solution]

Hi joakimGFRKW,

Greatly appreciate your participation on the forum, I apologized if we didn't address this earlier with you. This hasn't change much in EAGLE, but there are a few things you can do to improve the highlighted show notification.  As you may already know EAGLE has the option for Alpha Blending selected by default.

If you click on Options/Set, click on the Palette corresponding to your background color.  The fist row will be display the colors used in EAGLE at their regular state, while the second row show the highlighted version. For this example location (1,7) is the regular state color used for airwires and location (2,7) is the highlighted state.  Consider changing the color for the highlighted state the best suits your preference.  

Consider deselecting the Alpha Blending result option in the Palette Dialog Box, you can test different color combinations.

I hope this helps.

Best Regards,

Ed

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your quick reply. Your suggestion works great (in PCB); I was choosing white color for both the bottom and the top layer in this case to try it out, just to se the complete net in the same color all over the PCB (see pcb picture)...  but I don't get it to work in the schematics, must be something I do wrong, when I do the same as you suggested for the PCB. I would like to have some kind of green color for the not highlighted "net" and something like screaming red or black or something for the highlighted net, in other word big contrasts between not highlighted and highlighted. It seems to work, though, if I choose black background for the schematics (OPTIONS/USER INTERFACE/SCHEMATIC/BLACK) but that way it's not good for the eyes working with the schematics (I'm not used of that). Any ideas?

Actually the colours/palettes are completely different here when comparing "SET/COLORS/PALETTE" with "VIEW/LAYER SETTINGS/NETS/COLOR" (see pictures).

 PCB (WORKS GREAT)

 SET/COLORS/PALETTE

 VIEW/LAYER SETTINGS/NETS/COLOR

[jorge_garcia · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous,

I hope you're having a good day. Remember that schematic uses the white Background so you would have to adjust the white palette to get the same effect.

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

Best Regards,

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Thanks again, yes, now a very good day thanks to your help! Of course I have to change the white background settings the same way, now I understand it better after you have explained why the "COLORS" settings are there and what they can do. It's still a bit confusing with the COLORS settings but I think it will be easier from now on. Great support from you guys.

[Anonymous]

So, just final question now as you have helped me to find the way to get appropriate settings regarding colors: Is it a way to "save" the palette/color settings to be used/imported in other/all projects (=projects already started)?

[nnovotney]

There should be a highlight command/option (instead of just the show option) to also apply a highlighter to the shown trace or schematic net.  This would be wider than the trace itself, just as though you used an actual highlighter.  When zoomed out on a large dense board, using "show" doesn't noticeably show anything (the lines are too thin/crowded to easily spot any colors,regardless of what they are).  When you need to zoom out to visualize the route across the whole board (or schematic), the highlighter would clearly & quickly show every region it is going to.

[Anonymous]

Agreed!

[jorge_garcia]

Hi nnovotney,

Thanks for your suggestion, some form of this has been requested for a long time. I have added your comments to the existing enhancement request.

In the meantime, are you aware of the show @ option? This draws a rectangle around the part to make it easier to find. It works best if you are looking for only one part. If you are looking for multiple parts then the rectangle becomes too big and doesn't really specify anything.

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

Best Regards,

[jorge_garcia · Accepted solution]

Hi joakimGFRKW,

I hope you're doing well. Yes, there is run the exp-palette.ulp that comes with EAGLE it will create a script file with all of the colors in your palette. You can now run that script on any design and your colors will immediately take effect.

If you want to set it as the default color scheme for all new projects, then save the generated script to the scripts folder and in the eagle.scr file add a line near the top that says:

SCRIPT youscriptnamehere.scr;

That will make sure it runs every time you start a new editor.

Please remember to click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you in this thread. When other users search for similar issues those posts get priority and can help users find solutions faster.

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

Best Regards,

[nnovotney]

In the meantime, are you aware of the show @ option?

Yes, I use that option for parts, as you noted.  My suggestion is useful for being able to see everywhere that my_important_signal  is connected in a dense schematic & where it is routed on a dense board.   The show command result tends to get buried in the drawing noise when zoomed out.

[Anonymous]

Agreed

[C.Nicks]

Hey Everybody,

Just want to let you know about this walkthrough post I just made outlining some ULPs made for more advanced show and highlighting.
I do think the SHOW command needs some love, but till then I will continue to work on these.

Let me know what you think.

[Anonymous]

Wow, great works! Your ULP's seems to be great, will download and try some of them out. Is it possible to get the "menues" you made as well with your ulp's (.scr files)?

The negative sides with ULP's – which in no way overrides the positive sides – is that could be quite a mess to organize them all as there's so many good ones released!

The ULP function is one of the main reasons I stay with Eagle, together with its user friendly front/back annotation function, even though I would love to be able to add parts on the PCB side as well as on the schematics side! Like if you design/route a PCB part of your likings, simply block mark it and place another one straight on, and this gets immediately updated in the schematics (just as it does now, at least in Eagle 6.x) from the schematics side. Yes, I know it's possible to "import" etc but that's often quite a hassle.  

[Anonymous]

this is all cool but unless it can be easily found and made work with just a few mouse clicks without any input from the keyboard or even programming, people will still need help to use it. just make the color setup available from the menus, that includes the option to load and save different setups. running scr is so 1991.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it's too many "steps", with scr/ulp's which on the other side can be addressed to keyboard shortcuts or home-made menu items, but yes, we could name this "so 1991" or why not "so 1986" (remembering using DOS/EEDesigner 2.75 – which quite easily could back annotate from added parts on the PCB back to the schematics)! 

[Anonymous]

I hope matt.berggren will hear you and update Eagle to at least 1986 levels! (31 years, wow!) Yes, adding new components on BRD is a MUST!

(how am I supposed to know whether that connector or capacitor or whatever is a good dimensional fit? place 20 different on chematics and go discover on the BRD.)

[C.Nicks]

@Anonymous

You can get the Menu from the SCR directory. Here is a direct LINK

As for the organization, yes right now it is a bit of a mess, but I think some changes coming up may help this issue.

What I did to help was to start a new ULP directory ( you can see the structure I used to organize them into which editor can launch them) then I copied only the scripts I wanted to use. Anytime I don't have something, I look at the standard installed scripts and copy/edit them into my directories.

@Anonymous

If you are placing a capacitor or something that has multiple packages, you can use 'Change Package' to switch different sizes. No need to place a bunch to see if they fit.

I do not want the ability to place parts from board, where do they go in the schematic, which page? The old methods of back annotation are antiquated and there is no need to go back to them.

You can place parts directly in the board if you are working on a board without the schematic loaded. This will break annotation though.

Also, this is not a typical consumer level program. This is an advanced design tool, and one of the easiest to use if you take the time to learn the workflow it follows. Take the time, it is worth it.

You CAN use all of the features without any modifications or programming. There is no one setup that works for everyone, that is why having the ability to use ULPs and scripts is so powerful.

There are a lot of resources in the community to learn these tricks. Feel free to ask us and we'll do our best to help you out.

- Cameron

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Very kind of you, thanks a lot!

[Anonymous]

"There is no one setup that works for everyone, that is why having the ability to use ULPs and scripts is so powerful."

Agreed!