Protel DXP and Copper Fills

[Costas Vlachos]

I'm using Protel DXP for PCB design (fully manual routing), and I often need
to fill large areas with copper (grounding, high current paths, etc.). Is
there a way to tell the s/w to fill an *arbitrary* closed outline with
copper (other than the polygon plane tool)? What I usually do is just fill
the area with overlapping thick tracks until it's covered completely. Is
this how it's done? Any smarter/easier way to do it?

Thanks.

Costas
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Costas Vlachos Email: c-X-vlachos@hot-X-mail.com
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[Peter Bennett]

On Mon, 28 Jul 2003 14:10:00 +0000 (UTC), "Costas Vlachos"
<c-X-vlachos@hot-X-mail.com> wrote:

I'm using Protel DXP for PCB design (fully manual routing), and I often need
to fill large areas with copper (grounding, high current paths, etc.). Is
there a way to tell the s/w to fill an *arbitrary* closed outline with
copper (other than the polygon plane tool)? What I usually do is just fill
the area with overlapping thick tracks until it's covered completely. Is
this how it's done? Any smarter/easier way to do it?

That's what the "Place Polygon plane" tool is for!!

When you place a polygon plane, you can draw an arbitrary outline,
connect the plane to a net, and Protel will fill the polygon,
carefully avoiding any other nets within the area.


--
Peter Bennett VE7CEI
GPS and NMEA info and programs: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter/index.html
Newsgroup new user info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/nnq

 

[Costas Vlachos]

"Peter Bennett" <peterbb@interchange.ubc.ca> wrote in message
news:fapaiv0a4290u6dict1c3hm00n94f5mqo6@4ax.com...

On Mon, 28 Jul 2003 14:10:00 +0000 (UTC), "Costas Vlachos"
c-X-vlachos@hot-X-mail.com> wrote:

I'm using Protel DXP for PCB design (fully manual routing), and I often
need
to fill large areas with copper (grounding, high current paths, etc.). Is
there a way to tell the s/w to fill an *arbitrary* closed outline with
copper (other than the polygon plane tool)? What I usually do is just
fill
the area with overlapping thick tracks until it's covered completely. Is
this how it's done? Any smarter/easier way to do it?

That's what the "Place Polygon plane" tool is for!!

When you place a polygon plane, you can draw an arbitrary outline,
connect the plane to a net, and Protel will fill the polygon,
carefully avoiding any other nets within the area.

Thanks Peter. Yes, I know about the polygon plane tool. It's just that I
don't normally use nets and just lay the board manually (no auto-routing, no
schematic, no net list). I simply use the s/w as a drawing tool. All of my
objects are assigned "No Net". So, when I use the polygon plane, it "avoids"
everything, even pads that should be connected to it. What I want is
something like "Place Fill" but for arbitrary outlines. I'll try to assign
some nets where necessary and give it another go.

cheers,
Costas