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

[DJ Delorie <dj@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Well, technically the almost all the vias are going to have
> something soldered into them: I had to create all of the elements
> for the PCB by hand, and instead of creating "real" elements I just
> drew outlines in the silk layer and placed vias where pins will
> go. The documentation says this is a bad idea, but I can't figure
> out why: you use vias to create elements, right? So why can't you
> just place vias? They "look" ok in the PCB and the print ok as
> well...perhaps I'm missing something?

The fundamental difference is that pcb does NOT expect anything to be
soldered to a via.  What you should do is select all the vias for one
element, cut to buffer, convert buffer to element, paste it back down.
Now they're pins, and pcb DOES expect things to be soldered to them.

> The documentation says that the vias will be covered (except for the
> hole) by the solder mask, but isn't that something only used in
> manufacturing?

The solder mask is a plastic film over the board that keeps solder
from sticking to the things that aren't pins or pads.  I.e. it will
cover vias by default, so you won't be able to solder to them.  Use
the "show solder mask" option to see what's covered.

> p.s. F10 just brings up the File menu in my version of PCB, I'll
> check about thermal reliefs in the documentation

If it's the lesstif version, it's in the Tools menu.  In the GTK
version, you can use the buttons on the left.

Shift-clicking a via cycles between the types of thermals.


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