How to Make Polygon Pours and Cutouts More Professional

Рет қаралды 12,574

Күн бұрын

It's Tech Consultant Zach Peterson's last video of the year and to close things out, he's answering a viewer question relating to cleaning up polygon pour and cutouts. He covers the polygon pour tool's best uses, how to handle cutouts, and some different strategies to achieve (and not achieve) a cleaner board.
0:00 Intro
1:20 Best Uses of the Polygon Pour Tool
2:28 Polygon Pour Cutout
4:33 Subtracting Polygons
6:49 Drawing and Defining a Cutout
10:07 Fill Tool?
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Пікірлер: 17

@alexyoung6418 Жыл бұрын

I had a problem with overlapping polygons where the larger one covered the entire area of the smaller one. Each time changes were made I had to repoure the smaller one before doing the same with the larger. Otherwise the larger one would fill the entire area and the smaller one would have never been created. I couldn't subtract the larger one with the smaller one and then place a new smaller polygon in the ensuing cutout area because the cutout would have prenvented the new smaller one from being generated. It wasn't easy to create the two separately out of lines either because the lines were closed loops, my PCB was a bezel frame with the center area hollowed out and the polygons were defined by loops. Then I discovered this cool feature: under Tools->Polygon Manager, there's a "Pour Order" section that allowed me to specify the smaller polygon as the one to repour before the rest. Turned out to be the most elegant solution to my problem. Just sharing this additional tip and hope it will be helpful some day.

@Zachariah-Peterson Жыл бұрын

I remember when I discovered this, it has prevented a lot of headaches!

@vassilisskrekas4598 Жыл бұрын

Hey Zach, Thank you very much for these tutorials. THey are very detailed and very instructive. Could you also make a tutorial on how to work with "weird geometry" routing in PCBs? I mean when it is required to use different snapping angles than the standard 45 degrees or more round-edged polygons and traces. Thank you in advance and keep up the great work!

@Zachariah-Peterson Жыл бұрын

Great idea, I had a question about this recently in reference to zig-zag routing, I'll add this to my list of ideas.

@furkanozdemir3994 Жыл бұрын

@@Zachariah-Peterson Hello Zach. I have a question for you that is unrelated to the topic of this video, but I hope you answer it. My PCB, which I designed for a competition, is almost finished. I want to fix my total PCB thickness at 1.5mm by making the dielectric layer of 1.4mm in this PCB, which I use on both sides with 2 layers. But when I enter the layer stack manager and change the thickness of the dielectric layer and press the save button to save the change, it gives me an error saying "Access to "C:\Program Files\Altium\AD22\filename.PcbDoc.pcbstackup" path is denied". I searched on the internet but couldn't find a solution. I wanted to ask you as a last resort. Thank you very much in advance. have a nice day :)

@Zachariah-Peterson Жыл бұрын

@@furkanozdemir3994 This sounds like the default behavior for Windows. The problem is that you are trying to save the PCB in the Program Files directory, which Windows normally prohibits applications from doing. Try saving it somewhere else on your computer.

@furkanozdemir3994 Жыл бұрын

@@Zachariah-Peterson Hello Again Zach. Thanks a lot for your answer. it's work now :)

@sparklee6994 7 ай бұрын

I also find it hard to make arc shape of a polygon pour. for example, when I have an arc shape board on a mechanical layer, the signal layer polygon is still rectangular, it doesn't follow the board shape even when I re-pour it.

@maliknisar8368 9 ай бұрын

Hello dear Thank you my questions how to change board thickness when i saw in 3d view board

@Zachariah-Peterson 9 ай бұрын

You cannot change the thickness in the 3D view, you need to go into hte Layer Stack Manager to change the board thickness. This is done by adjusting the thickness of each layer. Once you make the change and save those changes, the thicker board will appear in the 3D view.

@fernandopita770 Жыл бұрын

How the heck do you prevent polygon pour on components or certain components... Trying to prevent the pour from filling the gaps under a component for example the pour filling the area between the 2 pads of a resistor package i.e.:1206. It would be nuts to do a polygon cutout on every single component.

@Zachariah-Peterson Жыл бұрын

You can set the polygon clearance to specific objects in the PCB layout or to components in specific component classes. I can create a video that shows how to do this with the rules system and the query system. This way you don't have to do this just by using a single clearance value.

@najeemsyed6029 Жыл бұрын

How to remove polygons outside board region.

@Zachariah-Peterson Жыл бұрын

Use the Board Outline Clearance rule. This is one of those rules that should be created by default. Set it to 10 mils.

@sparklee6994 7 ай бұрын

another problem with polygon pour is: that it doesn't connect to a via that has the same net as the polygon if the via is surrounded by other vias on three sides, I left one side open for polygon pour to connect, but it just doesn't connect. it is not smart enough, when unable to make a solid connection, it just leaves it unconnected.

@Zachariah-Peterson 7 ай бұрын

Are you using the "Pour Over All Same Net Objects" option in the Properties panel when you create the polygon? Then it should pour over any object with the same net, including a group of vias near the pad.

@sparklee6994 7 ай бұрын

@@Zachariah-Peterson When select the option, it does connect, Thank you very much.