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

[Hans Nieuwenhuis <hans@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 02 Jun 2006 19:26:48 -0400
Dan McMahill <dan@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

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

> > 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.

This sounds exactly like I was thinking off, it would make live just a bit easier for HF circuit designers like me, although the functionality of just freely placing vias on a pcb as it exists now is a feature not found in any of the PCB software I have ever used before.

BTW: is it possible to change a via into a solid connection right now? It seems like if I specify a clearance of 0.0 I still end up with a slight gap between the via and the ground plane when I inspect the produced postscript output. I am still using 20060321 though.

Regards,

Hans

> 
> -Dan
> 
> 
>