Re: gEDA-user: Connect vias to ground plane with no thermal

["harry eaton" <bumpelo@comcast.net>]

> Does anyone know if this is
> possible?  I have found how to turn off thermals for the entire ground
> plane, but this shorts it to other vias like 3.3V.  I could do this with
> the commercial package I had been using before (Cadsoft  Eagle).

Probably the best way to do this is with a line of zero length that joins
the
polygon. To create a zero length line, (of course on the same layer as the
plane),
begin with a fairly coarse grid, say 100 mils. Then draw a single line of
any
length you like (I recommend moving one grid point). Now set the thickness
of the line large enough to span the gap and configure it to touch the
plane.
Then grab one end-point of the line and move it to the start point and let
go.
It's now just a circle. Don't try to move it without selecting it, because
you'll
just move one of its points. Select the circle, and copy it at the center
point
to the buffer. Now you can use the buffer tool to place this over each via
that you want to have a solid connection to the plane.

Cheers,
harry

p.s. If you want to set the line thickness very precisely use:
":ChangeSize(Line, xx, mils)" where xx is the thickness (diameter) in mils.
Don't type the quotes.