Yeah, trying to make changes to the circuit via the PCB is annoying in Eagle. It hasn't been a big issue for me, as the times when I've wanted to do it, I've wanted to do so much of it that it was worth doing that part of the layout using scripts (imagine a 4 signal layer PCB with the same functional unit duplicated 24 times, that wants to be as small as possible. adjust dimensions, autoplace, autoroute, evaluate, repeat). But I can see that kind of feature being quite handy when you have just a few copies to make.
Eh? Don't know why you'd ever not worry about DRC. If the PCB fab is that good, make your features smaller :P. You also want to always make sure that you're not violating your electrically-significant constraints.
And yeah, footprints are quite annoying (especially when starting out) and one of the things that I think a widely-shared online approach like Upverter will actually succeed in fixing for the common cases.
Did you do the scripting in Eagle? I usually just clone things a schematic building block, although that means that I have to redo the layout for each one.
I haven't made any boards for manufacturing, only one off boards. I like to keep things spaced out so if I need to get in and cut/jumper I can. Soon though, I'll make a board for manufacture. Then the DRC come into play.
I dislike the uncertainty in the footprints. I just sent a board out with a footprint I made, and I didn't have the parts yet to see if they would fit the dimensions. It's all a big guessing game. The Sparkfun library is pretty awesome in that regard (sharing files). I like how they say 'Production tested', keeping quality up when tons of people on Upverter are making footprints may be hard, although if you have a hundred or so 'tested' footprints you might be in the clear.
I started off writing ULPs, but eventually moved on to using a general purpose language to generate a ULP that consisted of the actions to be performed. And to get the data out, the registered version has an option to export to such a script, too (and you can write a ULP to do the same exporting in the unregistered version).
I've done mostly prototype work, but rework isn't much harder with tighter design rules. Also keep in mind a good amount of possible cutting/jumpering/airwiring can be avoided with the right use of infinite and zero ohm resistors at layout time. I unfortunately haven't touched embedded design in a while - moved on to software for more ambitious goals; unfortunately, das blinkenlights aren't so applicable to the problems of the world that are important to me.
Eh? Don't know why you'd ever not worry about DRC. If the PCB fab is that good, make your features smaller :P. You also want to always make sure that you're not violating your electrically-significant constraints.
And yeah, footprints are quite annoying (especially when starting out) and one of the things that I think a widely-shared online approach like Upverter will actually succeed in fixing for the common cases.