OOOPS, this only partially went out earlier, so please accept my appologies for
the resend. This problem is becoming a major stumbling block and is holding up
a project I need to get moving.
I am seeing this very strange issue when using zones (at least it seems strange
to me).I have a 4-layer board with almost all surface mount. L1 is almost
entirely dedicated as my "VDD layer" by creating a zone connected to my VDD net
on that layer. L2 is the same thing with my VSS (Ground) layer.
When I want to connect a pad or trace to VDD or VSS, I simply place a via in
the trace. According to the 3D view of the board, the hole plating is
connected to the VDD or VSS layer as I would expect. The photoplots (Gerber)
files seem to indicate the connections are there as well. I can export the
file and run the online router and it sees the connections.
The problem is when I run the DRC, it complains that the pads are not connected
and throws several errors. With almost 500 connections to VSS or VDD,
hand-routing all of them to the inner layers would be extremely cumbersome and
error-prone. Just ignoring all of the errors isn't a good option either as I
could easily miss legitimate problems.
I have tried doing a refill on all zones (which DRC is supposed to do
automatically) and no differences.
I have tried starting a trace from the component pad, switching to the L1 or L2
layer and continuing the trace.
Nothing seems to work. It's as if DRC doesn't recognize connections to inner
layers on anything other than feed-through pads.
Does anyone have any ideas as to what I could be doing wrong?
Is this a bug in the DRC? (I admit I don't know where or how to check for
bugs, so pointers to this information would be greatly appreciated as well.)
Any help would be greatly appreciated as this is now the critical point in
getting this board completed so I can start working on the firmware. I have
attached a simple schematic and board to demonstrate the problem.
BTW, I am running what I think is the latest version from February of this year
on an Ubuntu 9.04 platform. I will try the project later on my Windows XP
system to see if it is any different.
Thanks in advance,
Greg
