Outlines for an EAGLE short course (suggestions required)

Hello

I intend to give an informal instructional classes on Eagle to students at our university. I am not certified or anything to use Eagle but I just wanted to promote PCB designing among our students and was thinking of an outline for the classes. Each class is to be about an hour and a half and the course will continue for 4-5 days. This is the outline I have planned (just the idea), I wanted suggestions from different Eagle users on the forum on what could be improved with regard to the topics covered or the sequence. I would be very grateful for this.

Day 1:
1. Introduction to Printed Circuits
2. Introduction to basic terminology used for PCBs

Day 2:
1.Introduction to EAGLE Cadsoft GUI
2. Making your first schematic (Exploring libraries and other options, DRC, ERC)

Day 3:
1. Transferring your schematic in to a PCB layout (Explaining different options such as auto-routing, layers etc)

Day 4:
1. Introduction to using UlP's in Eagle.
2. Generating gerber files for the board.

Day 5:
1. Demonstration of making a PCB with the toner transfer method.

I know this is very crude but the lectures will be very informal and I just want to promote the use of Eagle as a PCB design tool.

Thanks in advance.

PS: If I have flouted forum rules, then I apologise for my mistake.

I wonder if you have the right balance of time allocated between schematic entry vs pcb drawing. If your main goal is to show the pcb design part, then I think you may want to consider shrinking your entire day 2 activity to half the day. The reason behind this suggestion is my impression that Day 3 has too much material to cover and will need more time. Alternatively, perhaps pcb design can expand into day 4, and you can shrink the introduction to ULPs. I find that ULPs are very handy, but don't need much time to learn to use the existing ones. It is probably beyond the scope of this to teach how to create ULPs, and so learning how to use one or two basic ones doesn't take much time. Generating gerbers will need a couple of hours, so I would keep that in as you have it.

Thanks very much Ron, I will make amends to the schedule.

Wond3rboy said:

Thanks very much Ron, I will make amends to the schedule.

Click to expand...

I commend your efforts to train people/students with a PCB making program like Eagle...

Eagle is not the easiest to work with....but it is free for all to use with it's maximum board limitation size of 100X80mm. No production work allowed.

Having said that...hopefully all the people you are trying to teach will be versed in the absolute necessity of learning PCB design to further their education.

PCB design and PCB artwork are things that many people I know of are not interested in....they leave it up to others rather..

Good luck and I hope all goes well

Personally, I love PCB design with Eagle. But even for me, getting going years ago...around 2002 was a steep learning curve....but all is good now.

All the best,
tvtech

Typically in the industry, EE designers make the schematics and then transfer the files to a CAD designer who makes the PCB design. I think schematic capture, and PCB design are two separate classes, or at least should be. Then again in smaller companies, one might do both schematic capture and PCB design.
A few years back I wrote a Eagle schematic tutorial (might be outdated now), but your welcome to use it if you like. https://www.electro-tech-online.com/articles/eagle-schematic-tutorial.275/

------------------------Edit------------------------------------
For some reason the pdf file for my tutorial is not available. Hmm, maybe a mod knows why?

tvtech Thank you for your wishes. Being that Eagle is free was a big reason I chose it, since our university deals with students from under-privileged areas they generally can't afford to pay.
Mikebits Thank you Mike, I had gone through your tutorial when you posted it back a few years ago. It was very helpful.