kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[jean-pierre charras <jp.charras@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Le 20/04/2012 10:24, Dick Hollenbeck a écrit :
> > With this patch, DRC recognizes that the vias are connected, and doesn't complain at all
> > about them.
>
>
> Dan&  Tom,
>
> Please re-test the revised patch, which has a better chance of being committed if it still
> works.
>
> And Dan, if you are interested in learning about what was changed, you might apply this to
> a pristine testing checkout, then compare that branch to the other one you have now.
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Dick

About this patch, if it fixes an issue, it creates some important others.
This is not only a matter of coding, this is the approach that creates issues:

1 - Keep netcode when a track is not connected to a pad (or a track connected to a pad)
can create not connected copper areas (floating copper zones).
This is the main drawback.
Note this could be fixed by a better code, but this is not fixed by the patch.
The initial patch had this issue, and this is the main reason I did not accept it.
( Pcbnew removes all floating copper areas, and to do that, checks for each copper area if
there is at least one track end inside the area, assuming all tracks are connected to something  )
2 - tracks that are *really* not connected keep also a netcode. I am pretty sure this is bad.
3 - If a zone has its net changed, the net of stitching vias  are not updated.
  this is also an issue, because a board is usually modified and edited during its life time.

An alternate way could be:
when a track/via is created starting to a zone, it is linked to the corresponding zone (the time stamp could be a good link)
If the full track is connected to a pad/track it is no linked to the zone.
Therefore, when a zone is deleted, moved... the linked tracks can be also updated, and keep their net.
And these tracks could be ignored by test functions which test floating copper areas.


However because it is so easy to connect stitching tracks/vias to a pad,
I am not volunteer to write this code, just to spare 1 second of working time of some users..

--
Jean-Pierre CHARRAS