gEDA-user: Using polygons for creating a ground plane by hand

["Jeremy Pedersen" <ubernerd.jeremy@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

I'm working on recreating a printed circuit board from a screenshot, and -- having aligned all the vias and traces as closely as I could with the original artwork -- would like to recreate the ground plane by hand. 

However, I can't seem to keep get polygons to "stick," for lack of a better word. Placing a rectangle, I need to click once at the origin, move the mouse to adjust the size of the rectangle, and then left click again. I have a feeling that placing polygons is similarly obvious, but I can't figure it out: after I have created the outline of the polygon, what then? left clicking again obviously starts another line in the polygon, right clicking does nothing, and the middle mouse button zooms out. What am I doing wrong?

Also, this is a two layer board: the top layer traces are in the component layer, and the bottom layer traces are in the solder layer. Should I place the ground plane in the solder layer as well? Or should I put it in the GND layer to differentiate it from the traces on the bottom of the board?

And one last thing: Some of the vias have rectangular copper bits around them, presumably to catch more solder and create a little heat sink (just a guess: I really don't know). So far, I've just been placing vias and drawing the rectangular copper sections by hand: is there a better way?

Thanks much,
Jeremy

-- 
 "Windows [n.]
A thirty-two bit extension and GUI shell to a sixteen bit patch to an eight bit operating system originally coded for a four bit microprocessor and sold by a two-bit company that can't stand one bit of competition."
(Anonymous)

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* JDP :)  *   
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