The Pour Copper option is used to flood areas of a PCB layout with copper, with templates used to define the boundaries of the poured area. Within Pour Copper you can pour all templates using the shortcut menu.
Sometimes templates of different signals on the same layer may overlap ( or be wholly inside ). In these circumstances you may want to specify which template has the priority, i.e is poured first. This option allows you to do this.
How Pour Order is determined
By default, templates are ordered by area (the area of the outline shape - without subtracting cutouts). This order is determined dynamically at the time of use. Changing the area of a template, or adding a new template may change the order. In many cases this is sufficient. However, you may wish to resolve certain conflicts and this is done by setting a Fixed order on some templates. This fixed order determines the order amongst the fixed order templates on a given layer, those without fixed order will slot in to the order according to area. You therefore need at least two fixed order templates on a layer before this has any effect on the order.
Shortcuts
Default Keys: None
Default Menu: None
Command: Ordered Template Pour
Locating this option
Available from: Context menu > Ordered Template Pour option
How To Use Ordered Template Pour
With nothing selected in the design, right click and select Ordered Template Pour from the context menu.
A special cursor will be displayed to show that you are in Ordered Template Pour mode.
You will see the templates on the first layer with pourable templates. The numbers in the top left corner of each template show you the resultant pour order. A second number appears if the template has a fixed order. All fixed order templates must be poured in the order specified, others are determined by area.
The text style used for the order number is defined in the Design Settings - Template dialog.
Select the first template that you want poured and then the next, you will notice that the order number will change. The next order number is always displayed on the status bar. Continue selecting the order until you have them all in the correct order. You do not have to start from one. With the Shift key pressed down, select a template to change the next order number to the order of the selected template. This enables you to swap the order of two templates without having to select all templates on the layer.
With the Control key down, you can toggle templates in and out of the Fixed Order, when they will be returned to simply being ordered by area.
When the order is correct, select Pour Templates On Current Layer or Pour Templates On All Layers from the shortcut menu to save the order and pour all the templates now.
If you select Save Order from the shortcut menu, it will remember the order without actually pouring the templates. You can use Ordered Template Pour later to pour the templates, or use Pour Copper - Apply To All.
You can change the current layer you are ordering using the Change Layer command. Only layers with appropriate templates are listed.
You can also view and change the pour order using the Set Pour Order dialog, which presents the templates in a list.
The pour order for each template can also be edited to give it a higher or lower pour priority using the Template Properties dialog.
Related Topics
Insert Template | Pour Copper | Clear Template | Set Pour Order | Template Properties