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

[Darrell Harmon <mail@dlharmon.com>]

It seems like all of the ways recommended would work.  Maybe when I 
finish this project I will look at what it would take to inividually 
toggle vias from isolate to thermal to directly connected to plane.   I 
haven't looked at the source yet, but it seems possible.  That would 
probably be the best way since I have hundreds of power and ground vias. 
(2 208 PQFP's on this board)

Darrell Harmon

harry eaton wrote:

> > 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.
>
>
>
>