Re: gEDA-user: How do you unmask via's in PCB?

[Dan McMahill <dan@mcmahill.net>]

On Sat, May 29, 2004 at 01:19:06PM -0400, Bob Paddock wrote:
> 
> How do I had solder mask clearance to selected via's?
> I tried selecting them then doing "ChangeClearSize(selected,+3,mil)" but 
> nothing happened.  That command only seems to work on pins&pads.

1)  Make sure you have the soldermask visible when you invoke that action.
    Otherwise you'll change the clearance to copper not soldermask relief.

2)  The value you put in determines the radius of the circular soldermask
    relief.  So for example if your via copper diameter is 40 mils, this is
    a copper radius of 20 mils.  To have a 5 mil soldermask relief around the
    via, specify a 20 + 5 = 25 mil value for the soldermask.  So
    :ChangeClearSize(selected,25,mil) should produce the right result.

The syntax of "+3" means increment the current soldermask relief radius by
3 mils while the "25" syntax means set the radius to an absolute value of 25 
mils.

Now, it does seem that it would be more desirable to have "+3" mean "make the
soldermask relief 3 mils larger than the pad size", but thats not what it does
currently.  

-Dan

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