Re: Low cost PCB layout software

From: maxfoo (maxfooHeadFromButt_at_punkass.com)
Date: 01/04/04 

Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2004 15:56:01 GMT

In order to get the via solder masked on the bottom you'll have to create the
via in a part library for it. read the appnote for creating libraries, pretty
trivial really... ftp://ftp.cadsoft.de/pub/userfiles/doc/eagapp3.zip

On Sun, 04 Jan 2004 01:57:42 -0500, Ralph Malph <noone@yahoo.com> wrote:

>Ben Jackson wrote:
>>
>> In article <3FF63364.2268660D@yahoo.com>, Ralph Malph <noone@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> >I also need to provide as much ground
>> >plane as possible to help spread the heat to use what little board area
>> >there is. So I am having to learn how to cover areas of the board with
>> >copper fill. In fact that is where I am currently stuck.
>>
>> You have to make polygons in the board layers. You could change the
>> trace widths of the net classes but that will apply everywhere, not just
>> where there's extra space. As of the latest version the autorouter seems
>> smart enough to avoid manually placed items in the copper planes (eg as
>> a test I re-routed a board that already had some text). The README even
>> claimed you could assign these things to nets and have them used properly.
>
>Thanks for the advice. My problem is not the basic issue of making a
>copper area. But I have a part with a heat sink pad on the bottom which
>needs to be soldered to a plane like a very large SMD. I was able to
>add that. This plane needs to be as large as possible so it needs to
>fill the open areas. I also figured that out. But there need to be
>vias to a similar area on the bottom of the board and these vias need to
>not be exposed, rather then need to have solder mask over them. That is
>what I can't figure out. When I add a via, it connects ok and in the
>SMD area it works just fine. But on the back of the board and in the
>non-pad area, I can't figure out how to get the via to not show in the
>solder mask plane. It appears that the solder mask is made from the
>VIAs/PADs/SMDs based on the rules I provide. I can't find a way to turn
>this off for specific vias.
>
>I posted this question to the support newsgroup, but it seems there is
>not much activity there over the weekend. :) I'll see if I get an
>answer Monday.
>
>Once I get this resolved, I think my next lesson will be in generating
>the outputs for getting the board made.

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