Manual Version 6 - Cadsoft

1 Introduction
Chapter 10 – Appendix
Lists useful additional information and explains some error messages
EAGLE prompts in certain situations.
For a quick, hands-on introduction, refer to the EAGLE Tutorial. Please read
the tutorial for a better understanding before working with the manual.
1.2 Important Changes
Anybody who has already been working with a prior version of EAGLE is
advised to read the file UPDATE under Linux and Mac or UPDATE.TXT under
Windows. It contains a description of all the differences from earlier versions.
This file is located in the eagle/doc directory. Please read it before you start
working with the new EAGLE.
Information that was not available or that has been changed since finishing
this manual is also described in UPDATE or UPDATE.TXT, or, if existing, in a
README file.
Detailed information, especially about the EAGLE command language and the
EAGLE User Language, is available on the help pages. You can reach a basic
understanding very quickly by using this manual, and you can use the
convenient search features of the help function to quickly locate the answers
to particular questions.
The most important changes compared to the previous EAGLE version 5 are
mentioned in the chapter.
EAGLE Supply Layers deprecated
Supply layers (i.e. layers with names that start with a '$') are no longer
treated special. Layers for supply signals now need to be realized using signal
polygons.
When a board drawing from an older version of EAGLE is loaded, any supply
layers contained will be renamed by moving the '$' to the end of the name.
This makes sure automated scripts that treat a supply layer as negative don't
make a mistake, while still indicating that layer as having been a supply
layer. The functionality of the supply layer is replaced by a signal polygon
with the proper name, using the minimum wire width from the net class of
that signal. The polygon is drawn into the former supply layer as a
rectangular shape, covering the area defined by any wires in the Dimension
layer, by pads or by vias. The Autorouter setup is modified in such a way that
the layer containing the generated polygon is activated (with preferred
direction '*'), and the costs for that layer set to 99 in all passes.
20
Very important:
After updating a board with supply layers from an older version, make