I have been doing boards which are split into broad regional copper pours. The copper is covering practically the entire side, but it is in 2 broad areas which are only connected by a tiny bridge in between them.

I have to work like this:

1) Setup "Route Keepout" boxes over top half of the board
2) pour to board outline in bottom half.
3) with a huge grid, move the bottom pour off the pcb, the huge grid lets you put it back easily
4) Setup "Route Keepout" boxes over bottom half of the board
5) pour to board outline in top half.

This allows me to get multiple big disconnected planes, but things start acting weird - and sometimes your copper pours will disappear. They will disappear when both the planes are on the same net, and both planes are poured to the board outline.

They disappear when you click undo (on any later move), load and save the file, or renew the board layout from a schematic file.

I wish I could flow as many pours as I want out to board outline, and that they could co-exist without any weird behavior.

Thanks
Mike Clemens

Why do you use many copper pours connected to the same net if you can use single copper pour. To remove copper from certain areas, you can use route keepouts.

I have large currents returning on one ground plane which are kept away from the microcurrent areas. I dont want amps of current returning across the low current areas.

-- 25 Jun 2012, 10:54 --

Yes, I'll try using route keepouts to do it in one pour. That worked perfect. (Duh I feel silly.)