Engineering: Adding External Part Libraries, DRCs, and CAM files to Eagle

This article will walk through how to add extra part libraries, DRC files, and CAM files to Eagle. This method will make it easier to navigate to your custom part libraries and reduce the time needed to navigate to the MacroFab DRC and CAM files inside of Eagle.

If you have not grabbed them yet, the Github repository for the MacroFab Eagle part libraries and associated files can be found here. You will want to clone the repository using GitHub. Instructions to do that can be found here.

I cloned my repository to “C:\Users\Parker\Documents\GitHub\EDALibraries\Eagle” which is what I will be using for my directory.

First open up Eagle’s Control Panel and navigate to Options -> Directories (See Figure 1).

Figure 1. Control Panel for Eagle.

In the Directories window click on the Libraries field and then click “Browse…”. Navigate to where the libraries you want to add are. In my case it was: “C:\Users\Parker\Documents\GitHub\EDALibraries\Eagle\Libraries”.

Do this for the Design Rules, User Language Programs, and CAM Jobs (See Figures 2 and 3). I have two repositories for Eagle parts so I added a second directory location by separating the two with a semi-colon. Click “OK” when you’re done.

Figure 2: Eagle Directories menu with default entries.

Figure 3: Eagle Directories menu filled out with all the custom directories.

Now when you click to add a part in the schematic it will automatically bring in these libraries and you will not have to add the libraries to every project. Also, when you click to load a CAM Job or a DRU file it will automatically open the first directory listed in the “Directories” menu.

Are you using DipTrace? If so, visit our article on Adding External Park Libraries, DRCs, and CAM files to DipTrace now.