CadSoft Online: What's new in version 5.0?

Newcomers
		Info

		Tour

		Freeware

		Non-Profit

		Dealers

		Prices

		Order


EAGLE Users
		New in 5.0

		FAQ

		Support

		Download

		Upload

		Forum

		Simulation

		Prototyping

		Boardhouses

		Training

		Books


Fun Stuff
		Music

		Gallery

		T-Shirt


Miscellaneous
		Awards

		Links

		Legal stuff

		Contact

What's new in version 5.0?

Platforms

The minimum system requirement on Windows platforms is now Windows 2000, XP or Vista.
The Mac OS X version of EAGLE no longer requires an X11 server, and comes as a "Universal Binary" that runs on PPC and Intel Macs.
The Linux version now comes as a a self extracting shell script with a setup dialog.
The buttons in dialogs are now placed in the sequence suggested by the interface guidelines for the particular platform.
The Windows version of EAGLE now stores the 'eaglerc.usr' file under the directory that is defined by the registry key "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\AppData" if no environment variable named HOME is defined. If no such file exists at the new location, it tries to read it from the old location.

User interface

When clicking with the right mouse button on an object in an editor window, a context specific popup menu is now displayed from which commands that apply to this object can be selected.
Since the context menu function on the right mouse button interferes with the selection of groups, a group is now selected with Ctrl plus right mouse button. If you want to have the old method of selecting groups back, you can can add the line
```
    Option.ToggleCtrlForGroupSelectionAndContextMenu = "1"
    
```
to the eaglerc file. This will allow selecting groups with the right mouse button only and require Ctrl plus right mouse button for context menus.
The context specific object menu contains an entry named "Properties", which allows to display (and modify some of) the object's properties.
The schematic editor now contains a thumbnail view of all sheets. Clicking on a thumbnail switches to that sheet. Drag&drop in the thumbnail view can be used to reorder the sheets, and the context menu allows you to add and delete sheets.
The attributes of parts in the board and schematic can now be selected by the commands that allow selecting objects with names by entering the concatenation of part name and attribute name, as in
```
    MOVE R5>VALUE
    
```
The context menu of package variants in the library editor now contains an option 'Edit Package' to quickly access the package of the selected variant.
The context menu of a gate in the device editor now contains an option 'Edit Symbol' to quickly access the symbol of the selected gate.
Renaming an item in the Control Panel is no longer done by clicking into the text of an already selected item (this has caused too many unintended activations of the editing mode). Use the context menu instead.
The positions of all open Windows can now be stored using "Options/Window positions" in the Control Panel. Newly opened windows of the same type will then be positioned at the same places.
Status messages and User Guidance are now displayed simultaneously in the status bar of the editor window.
If the pulldown menu in an editor window is hidden, the Alt+X key no longer leaves the program. To have this functionality even with the pulldown menu hidden, use "ASSIGN Alt+X Quit;".
When switching between the sheets of a schematic, the current zoom level is now saved.
Panning the editor window with the center mouse button no longer requires to press the Shift key to exceed the area defined by the scrollbars.

User Language

Entries in a dlgListView are now displayed in multiple lines if they contain '\n' characters.
The User Language function UL_POLYGON.contours() now supports a second parameter that allows looping through 'positive' and 'negative' polygons separately.
The User Language function UL_CLASS.clearance now accepts a parameter that allows retrieving the clearance between two net classes.
The User Language objects UL_ELEMENT and UL_INSTANCE now have a new member function 'smashed'.
Include statements in ULPs that contain relative paths, as in
```
    #include "dir/file.ulp"
    
```
are now searched for within the directories entered under "Options/Directories/User Language Programs".
The new User Language function timems() delivers the time in milliseconds since the start of the ULP.
The new User Language function ingroup() can be used to check whether an object is within the current group.
The new User Language function system() can be used to execute external programs.
The User Language objects UL_ELEMENT, UL_INSTANCE and UL_NET have new data members 'column' and 'row' which return the location within a drawing frame.
The User Language member functions UL_ELEMENT.smashed and UL_INSTANCE.smashed now accept an optional parameter text name that allows you to query whether there is a smashed parameter text by that name.
In the User Language the labels of a segment (both bus as well as net) can now be accessed through the new object type UL_LABEL, which is generated by the new loop member UL_SEGMENT.labels(). The old way of accessing labels through UL_SEGMENT.texts() is now deprecated and won't handle cross-reference labels correctly. The actual text of a label is now returned by UL_LABEL.text.
The User Language object UL_SCHEMATIC has a new member 'xreflabel', which returns the format string used to display cross-reference labels.
The User Language object UL_SCHEMATIC has a new member 'xrefpart', which returns the format string used to display part cross-references.
The User Language object UL_INSTANCE has a new loop member named 'xrefs', which loops through the gates that represent the contact cross-reference.

Screen drawing

Drawing on screen no longer uses "raster OPs". The individual layers are now drawn using "alpha blending". Each color (except for the background color, which is always opaque) can have its own alpha value, which defines how transparent it is. A value of 0 means the color is fully transparent (i.e. invisible), while 255 means the color is completely opaque. When reading an eaglerc file from an older version, the alpha values of all colors are initialized to a default value if all palette entries have an alpha value of 0. When printing, the alpha values are always set to 255.
Since the layer colors no longer use additive mixing, but rather use alpha blending, the default background color in the layout editor window has been changed to white.
If you want to have the old raster OP behavior on black background, you can uncheck the "Use alpha blending" box in the "Options/Set/Colors" dialog. In that case the alpha value defined for the colors is ignored when using a black background, and colors are mixed using an OR function.

User defined Attributes

In a library, devices can now have "attributes", which are arbitrary user definable "name/value" pairs. Attributes are related to the individual "technology" variants of a device.
The new command ATTRIBUTE can be used to define the attributes of a given technology variant (see "Help/Editor commands/ATTRIBUTE" for details).
The new User Language object UL_ATTRIBUTE can be used to access attributes (see "Help/User Language/Object Types/UL_ATTRIBUTE" for details).
The User Language objects UL_PART, UL_INSTANCE, UL_ELEMENT and UL_DEVICE have a new loop member named 'attributes()'.
The User Language objects UL_PART and UL_ELEMENT have a new member function named 'attribute()', which can be used to query a part for the value of a given attribute.
The User Language object UL_ELEMENT has a new member function named 'attribute()', which can be used to query an element for the value of a given attribute.
In a 'symbol' or 'package' drawing, any text that starts with a '>' character and matches an attribute name of the actual part or element will be replaced by the attribute value in the schematic or board, respectively (see "Help/Editor commands/TEXT" for details).
The SMASH command now smashes all texts in the symbol or package that start with '>' and match an actual attribute name, and assigns them as attributes to the part (except for the traditional placeholder texts like ">NAME", ">VALUE" etc., which are treated like before).
Boards and schematics can now have global attributes.
The User Language objects UL_BOARD and UL_SCHEMATIC have a new loop member named 'attributes()', which can be used to loop through the global attributes.

Locking the position of a part

The new command LOCK can be used to lock the position of a part in the board.
The origin of a locked part is displayed as an 'x' to have a visual indication that the part is locked.
The User Language object UL_ELEMENT has a new data member 'locked', which return the setting of the lock flag.

Popup menus for buttons

Various buttons in the editor window now have a popup menu that contains a list of recently used items or user defined aliases (depending on the button type). These buttons are marked with a small black arrow at the bottom right corner of their icon. To access this list, click on the button and hold the mouse button pressed until the list pops up, or click on the button with the right mouse button.
The button popup menus for DISPLAY, GRID and WINDOW contain two special entries: "Last" restores the previous settings, and "New..." queries the user for a new alias name and stores the current settings under that name.

Aliases for command parameters

The DISPLAY, GRID and WINDOW commands now have an extended syntax that allows the user to define "aliases" for certain parameter settings. The syntax to handle these aliases is:
```
    CMD = <name> <parameters>
    
```
Defines the alias with the given <name> to expand to the given <parameters>. The <name> may consist of any characters, except blank or semicolon, and is treated case insensitive.
```
    CMD = <name> @
    
```
Defines the alias with the given <name> to expand to the current parameter settings of the command.
```
    CMD = ?
    
```
Asks the user to enter a name for defining an alias for the current parameter settings of the command.
```
    CMD = <name>
    
```
Opens the dialog of the command and allows the user to adjust the set of parameters that will be defined as an alias under the given <name>. In case of the WINDOW command a rectangle can be defined that represents the desired window area.
```
    CMD = <name>;
    
```
Deletes the alias with the given <name>.
```
    CMD <name>
    
```
Expands the alias with the given <name> and executes the command with the resulting set of parameters. The <name> may be abbreviated and there may be other parameters before and after the alias (even other aliases). Note that aliases have precedence over other parameter names of the command. Example:
```
    DISPLAY = MyLayers None Top Bottom Pads Vias Unrouted
    
```
Defines the alias "MyLayers" which, when used as in
```
    DISPLAY myl
    
```
will display just the layers Top, Bottom, Pads, Vias and Unrouted. Note the abbreviated use of the alias and the case insensitivity.

Inverted names

The names of inverted ("active low") signals can now be displayed with a bar over the text ("overline"). To do so, the name needs to be preceded with an exclamation mark ('!'), as in
```
    !RESET
    
```
which would result in
```
    _____
    RESET
    
```
This is not limited to signal names, but can be used in any text. It is also possible to overline only part of a text, as in
```
    !RST!/NMI
    R/!W
    
```
which would result in
```
    ___
    RST/NMI
      _
    R/W
    
```
Note that the second exclamation mark indicates the end of the overline. There can be any number of overlines in a text. If a text shall contain an exclamation mark that doesn't generate an overline, it needs to be escaped by a backslash. In order to keep the need for escaping exclamation marks at a minimum, an exclamation mark doesn't start an overline if it is the last character of a text, or if it is immediately followed by a blank, another exclamation mark, a double or single quote, or by a right parenthesis, bracket or brace. Any non-escaped exclamation mark or comma that appears after an exclamation mark that started an overline will end the overline (the comma as an overline terminator is necessary for busses).
When updating files from older versions, a backslash in any pin, net, bus or signal name will be replaced with the appropriate exclamation mark. Any backslash or exclamation mark in a normal text will be escaped by preceding it with a backslash as necessary, since the backslash is now a real escape symbol in texts.

Drawing frame

The new command FRAME can be used to draw a frame with numbered columns and rows.
The new User Language object UL_FRAME can be used to access the data of a drawing frame.
The User Language objects UL_ELEMENT, UL_INSTANCE and UL_NET have new data members 'column' and 'row' which return the location within a drawing frame.
The drawing frames in the "frames" library now use this new frame object.

Cross-reference labels

A "label" on a net segment now has a new property named "xref", which puts it into "cross-reference" mode. In this mode it will be displayed according to the "Xref label format" string defined under "Options/Set/Misc", and will show its text at a different offset from its origin, so that it can be placed nicely at the end of a net wire.
A cross-reference label that is placed on the end of a net wire will connect to the wire so that the wire is moved with the label, and vice versa.
The format of cross-reference labels can be defined in the "Options/Set/Misc" dialog under "Xref label format". See "Help/Editor Commands/LABEL" for a list of placeholders that can be used here.
The User Language object UL_SCHEMATIC has a new member 'xreflabel', which returns the format string used to display cross-reference labels.
The SET command has the new parameter XREF_LABEL_FORMAT, which can be used to define the cross-reference label format string.
The CHANGE command has a new option XREF that can take the values OFF and ON, and can be used to change whether a label is "plain" or "cross-reference".
The LABEL command has the new option XREF to define a cross-reference label. There are also two new icons in the parameter toolbar to set this option.
In the User Language the labels of a segment (both bus as well as net) can now be accessed through the new object type UL_LABEL, which is generated by the new loop member UL_SEGMENT.labels(). The old way of accessing labels through UL_SEGMENT.texts() is now deprecated and won't handle cross-reference labels correctly. The actual text of a label is now returned by UL_LABEL.text.

Part cross-reference

The new text variable '>XREF' can be used in a symbol drawing to display a cross-reference to the MUST gate of the device this symbol is used in. A typical application for this are the contacts of a relay, where the '>XREF' text variable would display the frame coordinates of the relay's coil.
The format of part cross-references can be defined in the "Options/Set/Misc" dialog under "Xref part format". See "Help/Editor Commands/TEXT" for a list of placeholders that can be used here.
The SET command has the new parameter XREF_PART_FORMAT, which can be used to define the part cross-reference format string.
The User Language object UL_SCHEMATIC has a new member 'xrefpart', which returns the format string used to display part cross-references.

Contact cross-reference

EAGLE can now automatically generate a contact cross-reference, which is mainly used for relay coils and contacts in electrical schematics.
The contact cross-reference is generated for the first MUST gate in a part, and will display all other gates that have an '>XREF' text variable in their symbol drawing. The MUST gate is typically the coil of a relay, while the other gates are the contacts.
The contact cross-reference is displayed at the same X coordinate as the MUST gate, and at the Y coordinate defined by a text variable with a value of '>CONTACT_XREF'. This text can be placed either in a frame symbol, or directly on the schematic sheet drawing. The first one encountered will be used. If no such text is found, no contact cross-reference will be generated.
The User Language object UL_INSTANCE has a new loop member named 'xrefs', which loops through the gates that represent the contact cross-reference.

ADD command

The syntax of the ADD command has been changed to allow using libraries with blanks in their file name. Note that now the device, package or symbol name always has to come first.

ASSIGN command

On the Mac the ASSIGN command now knows the "Cmd" modifer key.

BOARD command

The BOARD command now accepts a parameter that defines the raster in which to place the parts when generating the board, as in
```
    BOARD 5mm
    
```
which would place the parts in a 5 millimeter raster (default is 50mil). The number must be given with a unit, and the maximum allowed value is 10mm.

CHANGE command

The CHANGE command now selects only objects that actually possess the property that shall be changed.
When selecting an object with the CHANGE command, that object is now flashed to indicate the change to the user.
CHANGE LAYER now also works with a group.
The new CHANGE option DISPLAY can be used to change the display mode of an attribute.
The options in the CHANGE popup menu are now sorted alphabetically.
CHANGE TEXT now accepts the new text on the command line and allows it to be applied to any number of text objects or the current group.
The CHANGE command has a new option XREF that can take the values OFF and ON, and can be used to change whether a label is "plain" or "cross-reference".

CLASS command

The minimum clearance between signals of different net classes can now be defined in a matrix, allowing you to define separate individual values for any combination of two net classes, as well as within the same net class (see "Help/Editor Commands/CLASS").

COPY command

The COPY command can now copy a group by clicking with the right mouse button.

DELETE command

The DELETE command can now select parts, pads, smds, pins and gates by name. The option SIGNALS to delete all signals in a board still exists, so if a part with the name SIGNALS shall be deleted, its name must be written in single quotes.

DISPLAY command

The DISPLAY command no longer automatically turns related layers on or off when used with the t/bPlace or Symbols layer. The parameter
```
    Option.DisplayRelatedLayers = "0"
    
```
to the eaglerc file is now obsolete.
The DISPLAY command now supports "aliases" for parameter settings (see "Aliases for command parameters").
The DISPLAY command has a new option "Last", which restores the settings as they were before the previous DISPLAY command.

DRC command

The DRC now reports wires in supply layers as errors if they are part of a signal that is connected to any pad or smd.
The DRC now always checks all signal layers, no matter whether they are currently visible or not.
The DRC now reports an error if an object in the t/bPlace, t/bNames or t/bValues layer overlaps with an object in the t/bStop layer (provided these layers are active when the DRC is run).
The DRC no longer reports objects in the Top or Bottom layer that intersect with objects in the t/bRestrict layer in the same package.
The DRC now distinguishes between clearance violations and actual overlaps of copper between different signals.
The Design Rules dialog now marks the name of the Design Rules with an asterisk if they have been modified.

EDIT command

The EDIT command can now insert and reorder schematic sheets.
Switching between sheets in a schematic no longer clears the undo buffer. Adding, removing or reordering a sheet, however, still clears the undo buffer.

ERC command

The results of the Electrical Rule Check (ERC) are now listed in a dialog, where clicking on a list item graphically marks the result in the editor window (if applicable).
The parameter Erc.SuppressAdditionalWarnings in the eaglerc file is obsolete. Errors and warnings are now presented separately in the ERRORS dialog.
The ERC now checks for parts with user definable values that have no actual value.
The ERC now warns about unconnected input pins of uninvoked gates.
The ERC now warns if a net has more than one segment, and any of these doesn't indicate that it is part of a larger net (like, for instance, though a label, bus or supply pin).
The ERC now checks whether the name of a net segment that is connected to a bus is actually contained in that bus.
The ERC now warns if a pin is connected to a net, but there is no visisble indication of the connection (like a net wire, junction or another pin).

ERRORS command

If the ERRORS command is entered without having run an ERC or DRC before, the appropriate check is now started first automatically.
The ERRORS dialog now allows the user to mark messages as "approved", which suppresses the error indicator in the editor window (see "Help/Editor Commands/ERRORS").

EXPORT command

The default output format for EXPORT IMAGE is now PNG on all platforms (on Windows it used to be BMP).

GRID command

The GRID command now supports "aliases" for parameter settings (see "Aliases for command parameters").
The GRID dialog no longer has a "Last" button, because this functionality is now implemented through the command button popup menu.

GROUP command

The GROUP command now has a new option ALL, which can be used to define a group that includes the entire drawing area.
The GROUP command can now be used with the Shift and Ctrl key to extend the group or toggle the group membership of individual objects, respectively.

HELP command

Since Windows Vista doesn't support the Windows Help file format any more, EAGLE now uses the same HTML formatted help on all platforms.
The Help window now has a "Find" bar where you can enter a text that will be used to filter all help pages, so that only those that contain the text will be shown.
The help texts are now stored in one single HTML file for each language.

INFO command

The INFO command can now select parts, pads, smds, pins and gates by name.
The INFO command now brings up the same dialog as the Properties option in the context menu of drawing objects, and also allows changing properties.

INVOKE command

If an already invoked gate is selected in the INVOKE dialog, the default button changes to "Show", and a click on it zooms the editor window in on the selected gate, switching to a different sheet if necessary.

LABEL command

The LABEL command has the new option XREF to define a cross-reference label.
The LABEL command now accepts an 'orientation' parameter to define the orientation of the label textually.

MIRROR command

The MIRROR command now also works with rectangles.
The MIRROR command can now select parts, pads, smds and pins by name.

MOVE command

The MOVE command can now select parts, pads, smds, pins and gates by name.
The MOVE command can now move a group of objects from one schematic sheet to an other, without modifying the board.

NAME command

The NAME command can now rename an individual polygon, which moves the polygon from one signal to another.
The NAME command can now select parts, pads, smds, pins and gates by name.

PACKAGE command

The PACKAGE command, when used in the board or schematic editor, now behave exactly like CHANGE PACKAGE.

PRINT command

The PRINT command has a new option named FILE, which can be used to print into a file.
The PRINT command can now create PDF (Portable Document Format) files. These files are fully searchable for any (non-vector-font) texts they contain.
The PRINT dialog now has a preview of the printed object.
The scale factor in the PRINT command is now limited to the range 0.001...1000.
The calibration values for printing are now limited to the range 0.1...2.
The border values as delivered by the printer driver are now rounded up to the next higher multiple of 0.1mm.

RATSNEST command

The RATSNEST command now ignores wires in supply layers.
The RATSNEST command can now be called with signal names to calculate only the airwires and polygons of selected signals.
The RATSNEST command can now hide the airwires of selected signals.
The RATSNEST command now displays the name of the currently processed signal in the status line.
The RATSNEST command now generates airwires for objects inside hatched polygons that would "fall through" the hatch lines. Thermal and annulus rings inside a hatched polygon that do not have solid contact to any of the polygon lines are no longer generated.

REPLACE command

The REPLACE command now works in the schematic, too.

RIPUP command

The RIPUP command now has a new option '@' to allow ripping up all or selected polygons.
The RIPUP command can now handle wildcards in signal names.

ROTATE command

The ROTATE command can now select parts, pads, smds and pins by name.

ROUTE command

The "Via-Layers" combo box has been removed from the parameter toolbar of the ROUTE command, since the ROUTE command always automatically determines the minimum necessary via to make a connection.
The ROUTE command can now select airwires by signal name.
The ROUTE command no longer allows routing in supply layers.
The ROUTE command with the Ctrl key pressed can now also start routing at a via.

SET command

The new SET variable CATCH_FACTOR defines the distance from the cursor up to which objects are taken into account when clicking with the mouse (see "Help/Editor Commands/SET").
The SET variable GRID_REDRAW is now obsolete, but is still tolerated for compatibility.
The SET command can now configure the popup menus for values of Isolate, Spacing and Miter by setting the Isolate_Menu, Spacing_Menu and Miter_Menu arrays.
The SET command has the new parameter XREF_LABEL_FORMAT, which can be used to define the cross-reference label format string.
The SET command has the new parameter XREF_PART_FORMAT, which can be used to define the part cross-reference format string.

SHOW command

The SHOW command now works with wildcards.
The SHOW command now highlights the individual nets belonging to a bus if a bus is selected.
The SHOW command now accepts a list of arguments and highlights all the matching objects.
The SHOW command with the name of an individual instance (like IC1A, which is the gate A of part IC1) now shows exactly that instance.
The SHOW command now uses the Ctrl key to toggle the highlight status of the selected object, which also allows more than one object to be highlighted at the same time.

SMASH command

The SMASH command can now select parts by name.

SPLIT command

The SPLIT command now automatically picks up the next wire segment when placing a splitted wire. That way an already routed wire can be re-routed more easily.
The SPLIT command now also works with the "freehand" wire bend style.

TECHNOLOGY command

The TECHNOLOGY command, when used in the board or schematic editor, now behaves exactly like CHANGE TECHNOLOGY.

WINDOW command

The WINDOW command now supports "aliases" for parameter settings (see "Aliases for command parameters").
The WINDOW command has a new option "Last", which restores the settings as they were before the previous WINDOW command.

CAM Processor

The output file name in the CAM Processor can now be defined using several "placeholders" (see "Help/Generating Output/CAM Processor/Output File"). The old variant of using ".ext" or ".*#" still works, but is obsolete.
The photoplotter and drill station info files now start with the fixed string "Generated by EAGLE CAM Processor", followed by the EAGLE version number.

Autorouter

The autorouter now displays in the status line the name of the currently processed signal and the time (in seconds) it has spent on a particular connection in case it takes longer than 5 seconds.

Text editor

The "Find&Replace" dialog in the text editor now has a "Prompt before Replace" option.
The keyboard shortcuts in the text editor now follow the platform specific standards.

Polygons

When processing signal polygons, round objects are subtracted in such a way that the resulting error does not exceed 0.05mm (50 micron), which means that the distance between an object and a generated polygon edge may be up to 0.05mm larger than the value defined for the clearance or isolation, respectively. This is done to keep the number of polygon edges reasonably low.
Signal polygons in "outline" mode are now displayed with dotted wires, so that they can be distinguished from other wires.
Fixed calculating polygons in signals that also contain other wires, vias, pads or smds. If none of these other objects is on the same layer as the polygon, the polygon was actually calculated instead of being shown as outlines.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This fix may cause polygons that have previously been calculated to be not calculated any more, and thus be missing from the printout or CAM data! These polygons were electrically "floating", because they were not connected to any other part of the same signal.

Miscellaneous

The endings of wires and arcs with cap=round, as well as 'long' and 'offset' pads, are now displayed round on all devices (no more octagonal approximation).
GROUP/MOVE now preserves the connectivity between wires, airwires and vias, even if one of the related layers is not currently displayed.
Increased the maximum nesting level in config files to avoid problems with autorouter control files that define a large number of optimizing passes.
The semicolon (';') is now no longer accepted in object names, to avoid problems with parsing command lines.
The Printer.InternalRendering parameter in the eaglerc file has no meaning any more. Printing under Windows should now always work.
Trailing whitespace following the continuation character '\' in script files is now ignored.
Blanks in layer names are no longer accepted.
The Windows command line version 'eaglecon.exe' is now created automatically in the 'bin' directory during installation.
Selecting objects with only a single selection point (like pads, vias etc.) has been improved.
The different language versions are now all installed at once. Language specific files are distinguished by adding the two letter language code to their name, as in README_en. The DESCRIPTION files in directories hold the language specific texts between HTML tags <language en>...</language>. CAM Processor and Design Rules files separate different language versions of their parameters by adding, e.g., [en] to the parameter names, as in Name[en]="Component side".
The positions of the window splitters in the library editor are now stored separately for each drawing type.
If a layer name or a parameter alias entered by the user fully matches, it is now preferred over a partially matching one. For instance, if there are two layers named "Abcdef" and "Abc" (in this squence) and the user enters "Ab", then the first matching layer "Abcdef" will be selected. If the user enters "Abc", the second, fully matching layer is selected.
Coordinates and sizes (like width, diameter etc.) can now be given with units, as in 50mil or 0.8mm. If no unit is given, the current grid unit is used.
The info string for parts (as displayed by various command, like SHOW and MOVE) now also lists the part's value in the status line.
Entries in the "Open recent" lists are now only added when a file is actually loaded from or saved to disk.
When moving a net or bus label, a line is now drawn to the closest point of the segment this label belongs to.
If a command displays a progriess bar, the window title now displays the current percentage.
Changed the term "Rich Text" to HTML, to avoid confusing it with a text format from Microsoft.
In order to allow easier selection of circles that have a a large width (as compared to their radius), circles can now be selected not only at their radius, but also at their inner and outer circumference.
The Professional Edition can now handle up to 999 schematic sheets.
EAGLE can now automatically check if there is a new version available on the CadSoft server. You can explicitly run this check through "Help/Check for Update" from the Control Panel.
The Projects path under Windows now also contains "$HOME\eagle" to offer the user a default location for saving own projects.
The new command line option -C can be used to start EAGLE with a command string that will be executed in the editor window (see "Help/Command Line Options").
Centering on errors now also works if the error is close to the edge of the drawing.
Decimal numbers can now be entered with a comma as the decimal separator (if the locale settings allow this). It is strongly recommended, though, to use the 'dot' as the decimal separator when writing scripts or ULPs that return EAGLE commands through the exit() function, otherwise they might not work on other systems.
The new schematic layers "Info" (97) and "Guide" (98) can be used for general information and guide lines, respectively. The latter is mainly for electrical schematics, to help properly align relay coils etc.