Just a fun fact I discovered recently and wish I knew years ago: Texas Instruments (along with many other companies) publishes component symbols/devices/footprints for their parts that you can import into EAGLE easily.
Let’s use a nice power convertor as an example: http://www.ti.com/product/tps63020
1. On the tab row underneath the datasheet link, click “Quality and Packaging”. It will take you here:
http://www.ti.com/product/TPS63020/quality
2. Scroll down to “CAD/CAE symbols”, look to the “CAD File (.bxl)” column and you should see a download link. Click it.
3. After you have this file, follow the instructions immediately to the right of the “CAD/CAE symbols” table:
“Texas Instruments and Accelerated Designs Inc. have collaborated together to provide TI customers with schematic symbols and PCB layout footprints for TI products.
Step 1: Download and install the Ultra Librarian software ZIP: 62MB
Step 2: Download the Symbol and Footprint .bxl file.
Step 3: Open the .bxl file with the Ultra Librarian software.
You can always access the CAD/CAE Symbols database at http://webench.ti.com/cad/
Both PCB footprints and schematic symbols are available for download in a vendor neutral format which can then be exported to the leading EDA CAD/CAE design tools using the Ultra Librarian Reader. The reader is available for free download ( ZIP: 62MB ).
The UL Reader is a subset of the Ultra Librarian toolset that can generate, import, and export components and their attributes in virtually any EDA CAD/CAE format.”
4. When you launch Ultra Librarian, just uncheck all the other CAD packages that aren’t EAGLE.
5. Click “Export to selected tools” and follow the instructions in the log file that pops up:
“**********************************************************
************* Important Instructions Follow ************
**********************************************************
All files exported to: C:\UltraLibrarian\Library\Exported\Eagle\2015-07-27_17-10-08\2015-07-27_17-10-08
To import your new library into Eagle:
1. Start Eagle.
2. Select File -> New -> Library from the menu.
3. In the blank library window, select File -> Execute Script from the menu.
5. Browse to your newly exported Eagle Script file (“.scr” file extension)
6. After opening the file, the script will populate the new library.
7. Use File -> Save (or Save As..) to save the library to the desired location in Eagle native format.
For additional information, please visit this site:
http://www.accelerated-designs.com/help/Eagle_import.html
You may also find this video helpful: http://youtu.be/5jGuWY-Yy3Q“
6. You may now place the part as you would any other part. I always take an extra step to move the symbol pins around so it fits with my schematic most efficiently, sometimes splitting the symbol into two or more sections.
Wheee!
Thanks!