Hey Everyone,

First things first, what a crazy couple of months!  Since the acquisition by Autodesk, we have already had two beta releases culminating now in this, our first “proper” point release of EAGLE, version 7.7!  We’re super excited to make progress with some of EAGLE’s capabilities, and we promise, this is just the very beginnings!  To say what we’ve got in store for EAGLE is exciting, is an understatement.

This release is available now as a free upgrade to all version 7 users and can be downloaded from Cadsoft.io.  Please check it out, and as always, we welcome your feedback!

Now in this release we’ve packed a host of technology intended to make that path to manufacturing easier and more straightforward.  With some nice “bonuses” along the way (better visualization, SVG schematics to drop into your blog site or project page, nicely formatted BOMs, PDF documentation, etc…check it out using the MAKE command described below!).  Likewise, we’ve added a workflow that includes a clear path to MCAD, included out of the box & free with EAGLE v.7.7.  As you can imagine, being a part of Autodesk, you can expect some pretty incredible updates in this area!

For those who missed it, we talked about some of these concepts in a previous blog, and your feedback was super helpful.  Thank you!  Please continue to provide feedback as we are developing these concepts as we’re always eager to hear what you think!

That said, here’s what you’ll find in this new release:

Net Names on Tracks

Never have to ask for directions again.  Now with the net names overlaid on tracks & pads, navigating your board and picking up and routing signals has never been easier.  This feature is enabled by default (along with pad numbers) and is disabled under the Options.

Make Button

The one button to rule them all! With a single click of the ‘Make’ button in the PCB Editor, all the necessary outputs for you to fabricate, assemble, and test your boards are generated and uploaded to the Autodesk Ciruits.io website.

Together with a snapshot of your design, you now have a centralized place to access and share all your design content.  After signing into your private Circuits.io account, you can socialize your design and manufacturing files or even save it locally to your PC.  There’s also a link to pass your design directly to the Othermill, benchtop PCB CNC router!  If you’ve never seen one in action, this is an amazing machine for those that want PCBs on the bench, same day!  Checkout othermachine.co for more details on the Othermill and witness the awesome power of the XML file format (which made integration a breeze)!

MCAD Button

This single click option is the first STEP toward true ECAD to MCAD integration.  The MCAD button pushes your design to the ECAD.io website where you can view and manipulate your PCB in 3D in all of its glory.

From the ECAD.io page, you can associate your 3D component data (don’t worry, it remembers your positions and orientations, so you only need to do this once), store & manage your 3D models, and export to STEP, Parasolid, STL or even an OBJ file.  Look for libraries of 3D models to grow over the coming weeks as we build out this functionality and hone what’s necessary for you to build high-quality PCBs in glorious 3D!

So Much More

So that’s not all we’ve added, but it’s the big stuff!  We’ve added an assortment of UI optimizations and stability enhancements and a lot of the “little things” that make software stable and fun to use.  See the 7.7 Release notes for a complete list of enhancements.

Keep a look out for a lot more enhancements in the following months and until next time, keep the feedback coming!