Welcome to the third post of the “Exploring Eagle CAD ULPs” series. Every week we will publish a new post about one useful ULP in Eagle CAD.
“ULP” User Language Program is a plain text file which is written in a C-like syntax and can be used to access the EAGLE data structures and to create a wide variety of output files. You can consider it like a plug-in for Eagle.
You can reach the posts published in this series using the following link.
In this post we are going to explore a ULP called ‘Teardrops.ULP’. This ULP makes a teardrop shape connection between the traces and the vias or pads.
Before I found this ULP, I thought that I can’t do the teardrop thing using Eagle CAD, while I saw a lot of designs that have been done using Altium have this feature.
Using teardrop shape connection may result in many advantages:
- It prevents drill breakout due to drill misalignment where the trace joins the via or through hole.
- It makes stronger connection between the traces and the pads. Thermal expansion when re-soldering/desoldering could sometimes lead to a loose connection where the trace joins the pad.
For more detail: Exploring Eagle CAD ULPs #3 – Teardrops.ULP Make A Teardrop Shape Connection With Pads and Vias