The new Autodesk EAGLE is here, and it’s better than ever! There’s a ton of enhancements and new features inside to help you push your engineering limits in your schematic editing, PCB layout, and BGA fanouts. But not everything has changed. The EAGLE that you know and love continues to work on your platform of choice, whether that’s Windows, Mac, or Linux. This is what continues to make EAGLE so popular – it’s the PCB design software for every engineer, regardless of your operating system preference. We’ve got them all covered in this installation blog. Enjoy!
ExpressPCB by ExpressPCB is a free-to-use application that will help you design PCB (printer circuit board) layouts. Unfortunately, there is no version of ExpressPCB for Mac available for download, but there are other similar tools you can install on your system. But not everything has changed. The EAGLE that you know and love continues to work on your platform of choice, whether that’s Windows, Mac, or Linux. This is what continues to make EAGLE so popular – it’s the PCB design software for every engineer, regardless of your operating system preference. We’ve got them all covered in this.
System Requirements
You won’t need a supercomputer to run the new Autodesk EAGLE. We’ve kept things simple and efficient to allow your PCB designs to run on any platform with a variety of hardware configurations. Before you get started, make sure you meet the minimum requirements below for your operating system:
Windows
| Operating System | Windows 7 or newer |
| CPU | 64-bit processor |
| Memory | 3GB RAM (4GB recommended) |
| Internet | DSL internet connection or faster |
| Storage | At least 650MB of free space |
Mac
| Operating System | OS® X Yosemite (10.10.x), El Capitan (10.11.x), or macOS® Sierra (10.12) |
| CPU | 64-bit processor |
| Memory | 3GB RAM (4GB recommended) |
| Internet | DSL internet connection or faster |
| Storage | At least 650MB of free space |
Linux
| Operating System | Intel PC-based Linux with 2.6 kernel |
| CPU | Needs to support SSE |
| Graphics | X11 with a minimum color depth of 8 bpp |
| Libraries | libssl.so.1.0.0 libcrypto.so.1.0.0 For the 64 bit version of Autodesk EAGLE, you’ll need libc.so.6 with subversion GLIBC_2.14 or higher. |
| Internet | DSL internet connection or faster |
| Storage | At least 650MB of free space |
Not sure how to check if you meet these requirements? Here’s are some great guides for Windows 10, Mac OS and Linux Ubuntu that steps you through the process. With your system specs confirmed, let’s go through the installation process.
Installing Autodesk EAGLE On Windows
For our installation blog, we’ll be working with Windows 10, but your experience should largely be similar whether you’re on Windows 7 or Windows 8. Here’s what to do:
- First, download your installer on the Autodesk EAGLE Free Download page.
- When your download is finished, open
If you get a security warning, select the Runbutton to continue.
- Select the Yesbutton on the next Windows security dialog box to allow the EAGLE Setup app to make changes to your device.
- You should now be looking at the EAGLE Setup wizard. First, accept the license agreement, then select the Next button to continue progressing through the setup process to create your installation folder and the desktop shortcut.
Get started with the Autodesk EAGLE setup processing by accepting the license agreement and selecting ‘Next ‘.
- On the final step of the wizard, select the Install button to begin the installation process.
Select the Install button once you have all of your setup settings finalized.
- With your installation complete go ahead and open Autodesk EAGLE. The first time you run Autodesk EAGLE, you’ll need to sign in to your existing Autodesk account or create a new account.
Log into your Autodesk account or create a new one to get started with Autodesk EAGLE.
After signing in you should be greeted with the familiar yet new Autodesk EAGLE Control Panel as shown below! You’re ready to start your next design.
The new Autodesk EAGLE Control Panel in Windows 10.
Quick Note: The first time you open Autodesk EAGLE you’ll likely get a warning dialog saying that a directory doesn’t exist for your files. Autodesk EAGLE is just letting you know that it needs to create this directory to store all of your project files and such. You can select the Yes button to create this directory, and this warning will never show up again.
Installing Autodesk EAGLE On a Mac
Autodesk EAGLE is one of few PCB design software available on Mac, which makes it the tool of choice for the growing numbers of Mac-centric engineers out there. The installation process to get Autodesk EAGLE running on a Mac is just as simple as Windows, here’s what to do:
- First, download your installer on the Autodesk EAGLE Free Download page.
- When your download is finished, go ahead, and open
to begin the installation wizard.
- Select the Continue button to progress through the installation setup process which includes accepting the license agreement and choosing an installation location.
Cruise through the Autodesk Installer on Mac OS with the Continue button to accept the license agreement and installation location.
- On the final step of the wizard, you’ll select the Install button to begin the installation process. When the installation completes, select Close.
Select the Install button to start your Autodesk EAGLE installation.
- With your installation complete go ahead and open Autodesk EAGLE from your Launchpad. The first time you run Autodesk EAGLE, you’ll need to sign in to your existing Autodesk account or create a new account.
After signing it, you’ll be greeted with the Autodesk EAGLE Control Panel as shown below. You are all set on Mac OS!
All set for your next electronic design project with Autodesk EAGLE in MacOS.
Quick Note: The first time you open Autodesk EAGLE you’ll likely get a warning dialog saying that a directory doesn’t exist for your files. Autodesk EAGLE is just letting you know that it needs to create this directory to store all of your project files and such. You can select the Yes button to create this directory, and this warning will never show up again.
Installing Autodesk EAGLE On Linux
Linux is the operating system of choice for those wanting complete control over their computing experience. It’s incredibly easy to get started with Linux these days, and if you’d like to follow along with us, we’d recommend downloading one of the most popular Linux distributions – Ubuntu.
We’ll be installing Autodesk EAGLE on the latest release of Ubuntu, version 16.04, 64-bit. Here’s how to get started:
- First, download your installer on the Autodesk EAGLE Free Download page.
- Next, you need to extract
To do this, open your Downloads folder, right-click the Autodesk EAGLE file, and select Open With Archive Manager.
Open your downloaded Autodesk EAGLE installer with the Archive Manager in Ubuntu.
- Now select the Extract button and extract the folder to your preferred location.
Extract all of your Autodesk EAGLE files to a location of your choice.
- You should now have an extracted eagle-8.0.0 folder to work with. Right-click this folder and select Open in Terminal.
Open your newly extracted eagle-8.0.0 folder in the Ubuntu terminal.
- To run Autodesk EAGLE, all you need to do now is enter “./eagle run” and press Enter. Give it a few seconds, and you’ll be greeted with the Autodesk login screen.
- Sign into your existing Autodesk account or create a new one and you should now be seeing the Autodesk EAGLE Control Panel. If a warning dialog opens to create a new directory, select the Yes button.
Ready to begin with the Autodesk EAGLE Control Panel in Ubuntu.
You’re done! Anytime you want to run Autodesk EAGLE in the future simply pop open your terminal, navigate to the eagle-8.0.0 folder, and enter “./eagle run” to bring up your Control Panel.
Quick Note: The first time you open Autodesk EAGLE you’ll likely get a warning dialog saying that a directory doesn’t exist for your files. Autodesk EAGLE is just letting you know that it needs to create this directory to store all of your project files and such. You can select the Yes button to create this directory, and this warning will never show up again.
It’s Design Time
That’s all there is to it. Getting Autodesk EAGLE up and running on Windows, Mac, or Linux is as easy as can be. Now it’s time for you to check out all of the features we’ve included in this latest release. Like the new BGA fanout, which automatically escapes your nets out of any BGA in seconds. Or the brand new routing engine to make those PCB layouts easy to complete. Or maybe you’re tired of reinventing the wheel and want to reuse your circuitry between multiple projects? There’s something to love in Autodesk EAGLE for every engineer.
The free version of Autodesk EAGLE is just a small taste of what’s possible. When you’re ready for the full experience, be sure to upgrade with an Autodesk EAGLE Subscription.