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[inventore123]

It is possible to create an empty .brd file in eagle, and copy 2 board files in it? I need to merge 2 different boards in one .brd file

[bigglez]

It is possible to create an empty .brd file in eagle, and copy 2 board files in it? I need to merge 2 different boards in one .brd file

Greetings inventore123,

Sure! Like most EAGLE manipulations it's not obvious...

(1) Open "project A" schematic and turn on all layers. Lasso
the whole thing or just the parts that you want. Cut (copy)
and close the project - your selection is on the clipboard.

(2) Open a new project and paste the clipboard.

(3) Save it as "Project C".

(4) Open "project B" and do step (1) again.

(5) Open "project C" again and paste the second
section. Edit as needed. Run ERC.

(6) Go to the board editor window and notice that
all the components are connected by airwires and
located off the layout.

(7) Design an new layout of the "project C" design.

If you need the same layout as the original sections
things get a little tricky. There are a couple of manual
techniques using the X,Y co-ords for each part. It's
tedious...

Comments Welcome!

[inventore123]

Thanks!

[Philba]

what are you trying to do? Get 2 boards made for the price of one? There is a better way to do it - it's called panelizing. you take the gerber output of the two boards and merge them into one. submit the gerber to your pcb house and you are done.

gerbmerge will do this and it's free. well done package.

the advantage of merging gerbers is you can update your design and remerge it if you have to make changes.

[inventore123]

I googled gerbmerge... it looks good and it's even available for linux I'll try installing it.

[pstr]

Updating in case anyone stumbles on the same problem.

You can also use this script for a much better workflow.

github.com/p12tic/eagle-brd-merge

It produces an eagle board file containing several sub-boards. The resulting board can be larger than 100x80mm limit and fully editable as long as no component is moved.