Re: gEDA-user: soldermask relief in PCB

[Xtian Xultz <xultz@ig.com.br>]

I needed it too to make a good heat dissipation area below a TO220 part.
To do it, the only way I know is exporting the soldermask .ps file to .sk
with pstoedit, opening it with sketch, then I draw a rectangle in white 
color where I need it. It is not a good way because I cant draw with some
precision. 
I made some like this to not have soldermask in a line, so when it go to
solderwave machine, it receives solder and can drive a lot more current
over it. Again, I did it with sketch.

A good way was to make soldermask visible (the red one in PCB) and when 
selectin a tool like line, polygon or rectangle, it subtracts the soldermask
with the need drawed polygon (or line). Another important issue is to make 
the soldermask not completely red, but with some transparency, like the 
option that have the pcb rc file...

The problem is that I have no idea on how to make it, because I know 
nothing about programming...



On Mon, 15 Dec 2003 18:35:56 -0500
Dan McMahill <dan@mcmahill.net> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> Anyone know if there is a way in PCB to manually specify the soldermask
> relief for a part?  In particular, I'm interested in a footprint which
> requires that the soldermask be removed everywhere within a certain 
> bounding box around the footprint.
> 
> Thanks
> -Dan
> 
> -- 
>