Hi Olin - tx for your comments and pointer to your Eagle stuff.  I'll 
definitely try the BOM generator for my next design, its 9 schematic 
pages...

The board shorts to tie separate grounds together - I do this with an 
0402 "resistor" customized with a copper wire between pads in the model. 
  This works, but creates piles of DRC violations.  Do you have a 
different way?

Thanks-
J

> This is my number one wish list feature for Eagle.  At a minimum I want a
> second VALUE field for every component that can be separately displayed or
> not in the schematic, etc.  When I'm doing the design I've probably looked
> up the part and know the manufacturer and supplier part numbers, but there
> is no way to save this information for automatic BOM generation later.  
> I've
> nagged them about his already.  Please nag them about this too and maybe it
> will get towards the top of their new features list.
> 
> By the way, I've got a ULP and an external program that help a lot in 
> making
> BOMs.  There is still too much manual work left after that, but it's a lot
> better than bare Eagle.  You can download some of my Eagle stuff from
> http://www.embedinc.com/pic/dload.htm.
> 
>> 5) autorouter seems ok (I don't have the experience to say) but there is
>> little control over rules for it.  It isn't practical to say "all power
>> and ground must be 16 mils" because then pin connections to fine-pitch
>> devices fail.
> 
> 
> I wish Eagle had subnets too.  I get around this by "short" devices.  They
> are shorts on the board, but each side is a separate net so that it can 
> have
> different Eagle rules.
> 
>> Anyway.  I've done 30+ designs with it, and am happy with it, but I'm
>> starting to hit the wall.  If you have the money, and expect to do
>> serious designs - meaning 300+ components, 4-layer+ boards, need
>> simulation, using 256-ball BGAs and don't feel like doing your own
>> "escape pattern" by hand over and over, etc. - I'd look beyond Eagle.
> 
> 
> I don't know what you mean by "escape pattern", but it sounds like you are
> doing some things manually that could be automated.  I've probably done
> about as many Eagle designs as you have, but I haven't done a BGA.
> 
> 
> ******************************************************************
> Embed Inc, Littleton Massachusetts, (978) 742-9014.  #1 PIC
> consultant in 2004 program year.  http://www.embedinc.com/products
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