DESIGNING A PCB WITH "CadSoft EAGLE"

A way to create your own PCB's - yep that's correct: through CadSoft EAGLE, you can design and get it manufactured (by companies usually located in China). Although using EAGLE and other PCB design softwares (like proteus design suite etc.) might seem daunting at first, especially if you think about the variation in electrical components (for ex. packaging variation SMD, THM; size variations, etc.); But the good news is that there is a good and large active community of EAGLE, so if you have any questions chances are somebody would have already figured out solution for that.
To practice a PCB design, I thought to continue on the same project that I had already started: http://darkartofcomputing.blogspot.in/2014/07/electronics-rocks.html (XGS pico edition)
So, to create the required PCB, following steps are required:

1. Download and install EAGLE: http://www.cadsoftusa.com/download-eagle/ (a trial version would suffice to most of the projects at hobbyist level)
2.  Make a new project and give it a name (optionally you can also give some description as well):

Making a schematic:

• Right click on the project name icon and select schematic to launch schematic window:

• Add the required components by following the procedures as illustrated in below images (some of the components require you to download additional libraries, for ex. sparkfun usually provides their components eagle library; so be sure to check the vendors and appropriate component library):

•      To use the library (from other sources) just paste the .lbr file into C:\EAGLE-7.2.0\lbr  (i.e. library folder of CadSoft)

       

 

•     Search other required components..

• Finally, after populating all the required components, start to connect all the components to make the schematic.

Making the board layout:

Let's look at an example of3D printer board used in Makerbot 3D printer (designed by Jeremy Blum
http://www.jeremyblum.com/ )

...a very complicated looking design! Although my design (XGS pico) won't be as much complicated as above but the ideas used are the same.

.....Still working on this....