Via to Ground Plane

Making PCB Layouts, Manual routing, Auto-routing, Copper pouring, Updating from Schematic, Manufacturing Output
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cigarsnob
Posts: 2
Joined: 06 Aug 2014, 13:48

Via to Ground Plane

#1 Post by cigarsnob » 06 Aug 2014, 13:59

My apologies as I feel like this is something that has been asked several times, but I can't seem to find an answer when searching on this forum.

So my issue is: I have a component on the top layer and a pin is connected to ground. On the bottom layer, I have a copper plane connected to my net ground. I want to run a trace from that top component pin that is connected to ground and pop a via to the bottom layer and have it connect to ground. In PADS this is rather simple as you hit CTRL + LEFT CLICK and you can end your via and it connects to the ground plane (assuming that pin and ground plane is connected to the same net).

What I've been doing in the mean time is using static vias, assigning them to ground, placing them and then running a trace from my ground pin to the via. That way it connects to the bottom layer's ground plane. I just recently found out that I can use fanout and it will automatically run a small trace from the ground pin and tie it to my plane on the bottom layer by via. I want to do this, but manually and without using static vias. I just want to run a trace from my ground pin, switch to layer 2 and end it there. I also noticed that if I switch to layer two and then create a small trace and hit ENTER then it will do what I want, but then I have this ugly trace that is floating. Which is fine I suppose as it's covered up by a copper pour, but still.

This is a simple task and I'm sure that I'm forgetting something. Any help is much appreciated.


Thank you

Alex
Technical Support
Posts: 3897
Joined: 13 Jun 2010, 23:43

Re: Via to Ground Plane

#2 Post by Alex » 07 Aug 2014, 01:45

You can use fanout feature, this is the best way to connect all ground SMD pins to internal plane. Right click on any pad of ground net and open "Fanout" option from submenu. Keep "Apply to: Net", choose via style and distance from pads to vias and press OK.
For individual pads, you can use static vias to connect pads to plane.

cigarsnob
Posts: 2
Joined: 06 Aug 2014, 13:48

Re: Via to Ground Plane

#3 Post by cigarsnob » 08 Aug 2014, 07:07

Thank you for the response. This was very helpful.

graybrier
Posts: 2
Joined: 12 Aug 2014, 07:24

Re: Via to Ground Plane

#4 Post by graybrier » 12 Aug 2014, 07:50

I am a fairly experienced PCB designer and have just purchased DIPTRACE. I have created my schematic and it passes all the design tests. I converted it to PCB and hand placed all the parts. The design rules all passed again. I went through the autorouter set up and associated setup items (to the best of my ability and the tutorials) and ran the auto router and got a 98% route....good job!

I decided to add a power plane and a ground plane. I un-routed everything and then added the two new layers and poured copper on each of the new planes.
I then autorouted the board again and got over a hundred errors related to vias being out of range to the holes in the copper plane. I have read and read and watched tutorials and cannot see what I have not setup correctly, have tried to change the via parameters with no success. I need help to get this problem fixed as quickly as possible.

InvalidError
Posts: 9
Joined: 17 May 2014, 10:53

Re: Via to Ground Plane

#5 Post by InvalidError » 13 Aug 2014, 02:56

graybrier wrote:I decided to add a power plane and a ground plane. I un-routed everything and then added the two new layers and poured copper on each of the new planes.
I then autorouted the board again and got over a hundred errors related to vias being out of range to the holes in the copper plane. I have read and read and watched tutorials and cannot see what I have not setup correctly, have tried to change the via parameters with no success. I need help to get this problem fixed as quickly as possible.
You need to re-pour all your planes after moving components or you are going to have DRC violations for shorts or clearance violations between nets. DipTrace does not automatically update or even un-pour affected pours as you move stuff around.

You probably want to use Objects -> "Update All Copper Pours" before doing DRC if you moved stuff around.

graybrier
Posts: 2
Joined: 12 Aug 2014, 07:24

Re: Via to Ground Plane

#6 Post by graybrier » 15 Aug 2014, 14:44

That is what I finally did to make things work. My previous CAD updated the planes automatically
and so a manual intervention never crossed my mind.

My board finally routed and with a few adjustments I got a clean route and it is off to the PCB fab house for a build.
We will see the final outcome this next week.

JG

GSnyder
Posts: 26
Joined: 13 Feb 2014, 21:20

Re: Via to Ground Plane

#7 Post by GSnyder » 21 Aug 2014, 08:41

graybrier wrote:My previous CAD updated the planes automatically
and so a manual intervention never crossed my mind.
I think it was mentioned here a while ago that they were working on some form of auto-update for pours. But I guess that even with the recent improvements (which are substantial), the performance wasn't quite as good as they had hoped.

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