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PeteJG
United Kingdom
51 Posts |
 Posted - 24 Nov 2017 : 10:35:28
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At the moment you can define the width of spokes to be whatever you want, but that appears to be a global setting for all pads. Is it possible to pre-define non-default spoke widths for certain pads only?
As is the normal case, particularly with designs where space is a premium but you don't want to have to go with internal plane layers if you don't have to, you tend to spend time pouring copper, checking for flow & restrictions, moving stuff around to get that better, then repouring etc till you get it right and looking good. The problem comes when repouring makes customised spoke widths revert back to default, and you have to go round changing them - again! If I could click on a pad and define it's personal spoke width to be, say, fatter than default (for power pins etc), then it would sort itself out.
I know you can define individual pads to be "Non-Isolated" but that removes spokes completely which isn't necessarily what you might want. |
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John Baraclough
United Kingdom
129 Posts |
Posted - 25 Nov 2017 : 12:23:28
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Try creating a small copper pour area around each "special" pad and then define the spokes for that area.
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Birthdays are good for you: the more you have, the longer you live ... and I've had lots of them so I should know! |
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Iain Wilkie
United Kingdom
1019 Posts |
Posted - 26 Nov 2017 : 08:57:57
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Good answer John !!!
Iain |
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edrees
United Kingdom
786 Posts |
Posted - 26 Nov 2017 : 11:28:20
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| I didn't think of that one either! Another good tip. Thanks! |
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PeteJG
United Kingdom
51 Posts |
Posted - 27 Nov 2017 : 10:07:12
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Great idea John, I just tried that and it works. Even better than that is that it doubles up on the spokes - I have "prefer orthogonal spokes" selected , so the small copper pour gives normal spokes at 90 degrees as expected, but then pouring the main area around it drops 4 more spokes onto the same pad giving 8 in total. Btw I know you can go into the properties for a pour area (prior to pouring) and specify spoke widths and even 8 spokes per pad if you want to. This can look messy though particularly on smaller pads.
Interestingly it didn't do it this time, I guess maybe because the nets were the same, but I've had problems before with small pour areas within bigger ones. It threw up the misleading error "No copper area was large enough to be retained" when I tried pouring the small one and the only way I could get round it was to temporarily move the bigger one, pour the small one, then move the bigger one back into place and pour it. |
Edited by - PeteJG on 27 Nov 2017 10:09:19 |
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edrees
United Kingdom
786 Posts |
Posted - 27 Nov 2017 : 10:18:35
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Pete, the order of pours can sometimes be important, also, there is a box "Min Copper Area" in the Pour Copper Dialogue, it's value may be set too high?
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PeteJG
United Kingdom
51 Posts |
Posted - 29 Nov 2017 : 16:22:17
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Ed - I tried no end of settings for that Min Area box, as I did with anything and everything I could find that may have related to the problem. Nothing, apart from temporarily moving or removing the surrounding pour area, definitely allowed me to pour the inner ones. After reinstating the surrounding one, that poured fine too and respected clearances around the inner ones etc so all good in the end.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if you and/or others have tried this and had no problems. Curiously, if I go back into that design, clear copper from the big area, then clear copper from a small one, then repour the small one, it works for me too now! Perhaps something was wrong before, but having eventually succeeded, some unseen setting hiding somewhere got changed or amended at "save" time, I don't know. |
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John Baraclough
United Kingdom
129 Posts |
Posted - 08 Dec 2017 : 22:55:23
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Sorry for the late reply we have been away looking after the grandchildren for a while.
You can improve on this if you make a "hole" in the main copper pour area where the pad is. I usually do this by taking the small area out to the edge of the board somewhere and have the main area go round it. Creating a copper pour keep-out in the main copper pour area might work but I haven't tried it.
Having one copper pour on top of another with two different spoke sets might create a problem with some PCB vendors who take a really close look at the Gerber files.
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Birthdays are good for you: the more you have, the longer you live ... and I've had lots of them so I should know! |
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John Baraclough
United Kingdom
129 Posts |
Posted - 13 Dec 2017 : 09:24:19
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quote:
Originally posted by John Baraclough
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Creating a copper pour keep-out in the main copper pour area might work but I haven't tried it.
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I have now tried this idea and can confirm that it doesn't work. A keepout stops all copper pours and the only way to achieve the desired result is to have the small area go to the edge of the board and be isolated from the main copper pour.
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Birthdays are good for you: the more you have, the longer you live ... and I've had lots of them so I should know! |
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Topic |
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Custom spokes for certain pads?