kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Dick Hollenbeck <dick@...>]

Tim Hanson wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I've been fiddling around with the new zones & filling, and I'm super
> impressed!
>
> However, the zone fill algorithm does not know that it does not need
> to avoid micro or laser-drilled vias from the component to layer 2
> when filling a ground plane on layer 1. Presumably the layer stack
> is Component:Layer 2:Layer 1:Copper in this 4-layer board; i saw no
> options to change the layer connections for these micro-vias(?). Can
> fix this if somebody points me in the right direction...
>
> Also, shouldn't a zone fill eliminate ratsnest lines appropriately?
> How to fix this?
>
> Tim


Tim,

I would say that the "zone container" should be sufficient to eliminate 
ratsnest lines, even without a zone fill. The zone fill is an 
implementation detail of zones specific to Kicad, a quirky remnant that 
could actually be done much later in the board generation process or 
even at gerber file generation time. 


But your point remains.


There are folks who say that undo is our next most important 
deficiency. And although I also rate that as extremely important, and 
nearly as important as the point you re-iterate, I still think this zone 
issue that you raise again is more important than undo redo:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/kicad-devel/message/1063



This posting seemed to have suggested that Jean-Pierre was going to work 
on it, but I have seen no progress on it yet:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/kicad-devel/message/1066


So somebody needs to get this done. 

Yesterday I ran the menu option "Miscellaneous | Track Operation | and 
Delete Unconnected Tracks". Some of my tracks ended at vias going into 
zones, because the board was properly routed by freerouter. But this 
option yanked out those tracks because they did not all tie together to 
other power pads. You begin to get the idea of how big a problem this 
can be when you have over 400 parts on a board like I do. It is bigger 
than undo redo for this board anyway.


Dick