Rotate parts in Eagle by 45° and other mad angles

Eagle (the PCB CAD program) won't let you rotate parts by angles that aren't multiples of 90° using a pretty button. It's also not that apparent how you might go about doing it in Eagle, which is where this tutorial comes in.

It's a short tutorial, but long tutorials are boring. If you've already got a board and just want to rotate parts, jump around

Design the board

There's not much to say really. Design the board as you would in the schematic editor. There's no need to rotate parts in the schematic as it's separate from the actual PCB.

When you're done, convert the schematic to a board by clicking File > Switch to board. Go about placing your components as usual, along with the part you want to rotate in a rough position. Don't route the board yet.

Rotate the part

Eagle, at face value, has a menu for rotating parts by multiples of 90°. We want to rotate by an arbitrary number. First, find the long textbox at the top of the window, just to thr right of the grid dimensions.

Now, select the part on your board you want to rotate. Go to the bar mentioned above and type into it rotate R45 and hit enter. This will rotate the part clockwise 45°. To rotate anticlockwise, simply use a negative number: rotate R-50 (rotated -50°).

That's all there is to it really; rotating parts is simple once you know that a command is used, not a button!