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Chris Dancer
United Kingdom
10 Posts |
 Posted - 15 Feb 2013 : 15:25:14
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I've designed lots of boards with Easy PC in the past. I just created my first one after upgrading to v. 16 and noticed some strange things going on. Apologies for the long post...
The first was that whenever I double-clicked on a pad to begin laying a track the track style did not correspond to the appropriate track style for the net class the pad belonged to. This is a power supply so most of the net classes are Power, which should use one of the track styles I have defined for the Power class, but every track I started to lay out used the smallest signal style.
Moreover, when I did an integrity check I got the message 'Net "xxxx" uses net class "Power" in the schematic and net class "Signal" in the PCB' for every track I had laid out! So it seems every time I had started a track it had redefined the net class for that track to "Signal".
In defaults I had Track Style = "Power max" and Nets = Power. All the preferred styles were defined correctly in Net Classes.
Even stranger, at some point as I was working on the design it stopped doing this and started using the correct track styles.
I also noticed one other thing. As I was mucking about with copper pour trying to get the ground plane the way I wanted it, the program decided to disconnect the ground pins of several components from the ground net. It also disconnected two mounting pads from ground, but left the other two connected!
Are these bugs that have crept in, or is it possible that there are some incompatibilities with my tchnology files which were created in v.12?
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Iain Wilkie
United Kingdom
1015 Posts |
Posted - 15 Feb 2013 : 17:00:46
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I have been runing V16 with no problems like this. One thing you do need to be careful off is that as you muck about on the pcb editor you can alter things and delete nets. What you need to do on a regular basis is do a forward design changes to ensure that the pcb is kept in line with the schematic.
For instance you may decide to delete a track because its not quite right, but depending on settings this may also delete the net (say on one of your ground pads) so when you do your copper pour, it doesnt connect. In this instance if you do a forward design changes and then re- pour the connection should get made ok.
Iain |
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Chris Dancer
United Kingdom
10 Posts |
Posted - 15 Feb 2013 : 17:22:18
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Thanks Iain,
quote:
What you need to do on a regular basis is do a forward design changes to ensure that the pcb is kept in line with the schematic.
Yes, I do that meticulously whenever I make a change to the schematic.
quote:
For instance you may decide to delete a track because its not quite right, but depending on settings this may also delete the net...
Hmm... I've never seen that behaviour before, maybe it is a setting. Some of those ground pads that disconnected from the net had never been connected by tracks, however I may have deleted the yellow "guide lines".
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Iain Wilkie
United Kingdom
1015 Posts |
Posted - 15 Feb 2013 : 17:45:09
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Run the forward design changes not only when you change the schematic but also whilst working in the pcb editor at regular intervals.
Iain |
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edrees
United Kingdom
779 Posts |
Posted - 15 Feb 2013 : 17:47:33
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quote:
Hmm... I've never seen that behaviour before, maybe it is a setting.
This was introduced in V15 (I think).
Check Preferences=>PCB Interaction=>Delete.
You'll find a "Delete track does unroute" box.
Tick/untick as required. |
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Chris Dancer
United Kingdom
10 Posts |
Posted - 15 Feb 2013 : 18:42:56
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I'm not using autoroute so it's not that, but reading up on that led me to this:
"Delete Removes Isolated Pads From Net - When checked (the default setting), this means that when items are deleted, any pads that are no longer connected by tracks to other items on the net will be removed from the net."
That's got to be it.
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Iain Wilkie
United Kingdom
1015 Posts |
Posted - 15 Feb 2013 : 19:27:23
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Chris,
This is my very point .... if that happens doing a forward design changes will re-establish any inadvertant deletions ...
Iain |
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Topic |
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Odd net behaviour in v.16