Hi,
Somehow I can’t seem to be able to move components on the grid, using the Eagle layout editor. The anchor point of the components is never and never seems to line up with the grid…
I’m suing Eagle on Mac OS X.
Any idea of how to fix this?
Thanks!
do the pads line up? what’s is your grid (mm, inches, …) Do you have origin layers (top, bottom) on?
Ctrl + Left Click, will grab components by the anchor and place them inline with the current grid. 
What version of EAGLE? *Ctrl + Left Click* does nothingFartingMonkey92:
Ctrl + Left Click, will grab components by the anchor and place them inline with the current grid.
differrent to plain Left Click in Version 5.1.0 for Windows.
Can you cite a reference for Ctrl + Left Click, I couldn’t
find it in the on-line help (F1)?
Edit: Found it. (Find: cntrl+left)
Selecting objects at their origin
Normally a selected object remains within the
grid it has been originally placed on. If you
press Ctrl while selecting an object, the point
where you have selected the object is pulled
towards the cursor and snapped into the current
grid.
If you select a wire somewhere in the middle
(not at one of its end points) with Ctrl pressed,
the end points stay fixed and you can bend the
wire, which changes it into an arc. The same
way the curvature of an arc (which is basically
a wire) can be modified.
If you select a rectangle at one of its corners
with Ctrl pressed, you can resize both the
rectangle’s width and height. Selecting an edge
of the rectangle with Ctrl pressed lets you resize
the rectangle’s width or height, respectively.
Selecting the rectangle at its center with Ctrl
pressed pulls it towards the cursor and snaps
it into the current grid.
If you select a circle at its circumference with
Ctrl pressed, the center stays fixed and you
can resize the circle’s diameter. Selecting the
center point this way pulls it towards the cursor
and snaps it into the current grid.
The reason I asked the above questions is that even if you can align the origin, there is no guarantee that the pads will align on your grid. In general, you need to get used to the fact that different components on are on different “grids”. 100 mil is common for some but a lot of chips use different pin spacing. Especially when you go to surface mount but even through hole components are that way. Try a d-sub mini connector for a wacky pin spacing. It’s unlikely you will get all components “on grid”. This is one reason why autorouting makes for some buttugly boards.
I have given up trying to get alignment. In manual routing, I just route from an off grid pad, not to it. In almost all cases this works. Routing from an off grid pad to another off grid pad is pretty easy. Start from one, stop halfway, continue from the other pad and meet in the middle.