automatic via grid (Re: gEDA-user: cc2420 (ZigBee) board)

[Dan McMahill <dan@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hans Nieuwenhuis wrote:
> On Fri, 2 Jun 2006 09:02:55 -0500

> Not that I know of, but maybe someone more experienced with PCB can give more info. As a minimum I would suggest to put at least one via as close to every ground connection in your schematic, preferably two (just in case one via ends up broken). Be sure to disable the "Enable enforce DRC clearance" inside the settings menu and place thermals over each via.
> An automatic via grid option would be very handy for this purpose, but I haven't even seen that option in 4-digit maintenance/yr. PCB software (*cough* Mentor *cough*). 

that's a neat idea.  I guess you'd specify what sort of via (pad size, 
drill size, clear size, soldermask size,thermal or solid connection) and 
an x-spacing and y-spacing and it would just drop them down every where 
it could where it didn't cause a DRC error or connectivity change?

It would seem like it might be useful to be able to have a flag 
associated with these vias so that you could remove them all with a 
single operation.

-Dan