In the past two weeks I have started to design a new PCB with all its components and tracks. Today I finished with it and wanted to add a GND template on the top and bottom layers to flood fill the whole PCB area. At first sight it looks correct, but on closer inspection at some point the minimal width were exceeded.
For example between two ferrite bead pads I have a gap of 0.4 mm. My minimal spacing rule for tracks is 0.15 mm. this leaves a small line of 0.1mm that is filled with the template, but the dimension should not be allow to be smaller than 0.15mm. If I was allowed to upload a file, a picture of the above mentioned misunderstanding was elaborated.
I have tried width all different settings in Technology settings: Spacing rules & DFM/DFT rules. But the small line of 0.1mm still remains. I'm sure that I have some settings missed or overlooked, but I think it will cost me days to find this out. Therefore, my question is: Is my misunderstanding correct and that there is just a setting that I missed or is the the only way how the template works.
I working with the lastest version: 9.1 Build 6872
I have send the email, but I forgot to tell you where to look in the PCB in the email.
On the mechanical layer I added a text call out with a small description. The arrow of the text call out is directly pointing at the spot where a trace is smaller than my minimal required trace width of 0.15 mm that is caused with the Template GND pour.
With the data sent, we were able to see that due to the very thin line width used on the Template, this was why the result was as seen. The copper that is poured within a template always uses the same line style as the template. If you have a minimum ‘bridge’ thickness that you want to maintain, then you will need to set the line style of the template to that thickness. In this case, setting the template to use a line style of 0.15mm will ensure that no ‘strip’ of copper will be thinner than that.
Different results in different regions of the board can be achieved using multiple templates with differing line styles and widths.
If you have footprints with pads that have minimal gaps between them, where you would not wish for pour to travel through, then protect those pad banks by using an Area in the footprint.
I believe there is an enhancement request already logged to have an option for templates to use line width only for filling and have a zero width boundary.
Posted - 04 Apr 2018 : 15:03:25
