Mail Archives: geda-user/2013/04/02/19:43:13
Russell Dill wrote:
>> How should i handle pads which can optionally be connected to
>> ground?
>
> Just name them and you should be fine, no?
>
If you connect GND to the pin without the pin mentioned in the
schematic, pcb will complain on the next "optimize rats". If you
mention the named pin in the schematic and tie it to GND, then pcb
will insist, you do indeed connect it to GND copper. Either way,the
connection is not quite optional.
PCB allows to manually add rat lines in the layout. I thought, this
might be a way to introduce an "official" connection to GND. But this
does not work, either. The manual rat adds the GND net to the pin as
shown in the pop-up on mouse-over. Consequently, the line tool can
connect the pad to GND with auto-enforce-DRC switches on. However,
"optimize-rats" still thinks, this is a short. Seems like the optimize
action refers to a different netlist -- a netlist without the manually
added rat. (Is this a bug or a deliberate feature?)
You could exploit a loop hole in the connection check of pcb:
Letters in copper are completely ignored. Use an underscore or a
hyphen to connect the pads to GND.
Unless I obverlooked something, this seems to do the trick.
---<)kaimartin(>---
--
Kai-Martin Knaak
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