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flood over smt pads in PADS

J

John Larkin

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi,

My regular cad guy is out sick, so I'm doing a little test board
myself. I'm an occasional PADS user.

Everything is going OK, except that I want to do a topside copper pour
that floods over all the same-net surface-mount pads, without
thermals. I know there's an obsure path to do this - I've seen him do
it - but I can't find it. Flooding over vias is no problem, but there
is some other trick to flooding the pads. Anybody know what it is?

This is PCB v 5.0.

Thanks,

John
 
B

Brad Velander

Jan 1, 1970
0
John,
It is in your general peferences settings (design, routing or something
like that.). It is on some tab that only slightly makes sense in terms of
polygon connection types. Look for two groups of settings side by side in
the middle of the tab screen. Like two side-side columns. That sets the
connection types, it can set the thermal relief style (+ or X spokes, 2 or 4
spokes) and I believe also allow setting no thermal relief or flooding over
your pads.

The better question is are you sure you want to flood over your pads?
Are you going to be able to solder them sufficiently after flooding over
them. It's your board but direct floods over pads take a lot of heat to
properly solder.
 
J

John Larkin

Jan 1, 1970
0
John,
It is in your general peferences settings (design, routing or something
like that.). It is on some tab that only slightly makes sense in terms of
polygon connection types. Look for two groups of settings side by side in
the middle of the tab screen. Like two side-side columns. That sets the
connection types, it can set the thermal relief style (+ or X spokes, 2 or 4
spokes) and I believe also allow setting no thermal relief or flooding over
your pads.

OK, we finally got it to work. It's a little trickier than you
suggest.

In Preferences/Thermals/Non-drilled thermals, you have to select each
possible pad shape sequentially, and then set "flood over" mode for
each shape!

The better question is are you sure you want to flood over your pads?
Are you going to be able to solder them sufficiently after flooding over
them. It's your board but direct floods over pads take a lot of heat to
properly solder.

Production boards will be reflowed in an oven, where everything gets
hot. But I find that a Metcal can hand-solder almost anything. This is
GHz stuff, with really tiny parts, and the spokes just don't make
sense.

Thanks.

John
 
J

Joel Koltner

Jan 1, 1970
0
John Larkin said:
But I find that a Metcal can hand-solder almost anything.

Even with the smaller tips?

I have an MX-500, and while the larger (say, 1/8" and bigger) tips will solder
just about anything, the tiny ones just don't seem to have enough thermal
conductance to let you solder down, e.g., an 0402 to a ground plane.
 
B

Brad Velander

Jan 1, 1970
0
Yeah that sorta sounds right John.

I never said it was very simple, nor optimal, I just told you where it
was. If my memory severes me correctly, there was a flood over radio type
button below each column, or possibly just one below both columns. Does that
not just force a flood over of all pads regardless of shape? I can recall
doing the different pad shape thing for setting different spoke patterns but
I thought the flood over was more global and nto set by each pad shape. Oh
well it has been a while since I used PADs seriously.
 
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