Abd and Hamid Ok, Protel 99 SE,
I had a little trouble following all of that at first, but actually got in there and started playing around with the scope of the rule for Power Plane Connect Style, and while I too had never before investigateed the full list allowed by the slider, right there at the bottom is what I am looking for, which is "Region", and while it takes a little bit of work to set it up, that is just what I was looking for. This also appears to possibly be the answer to the "No Connect" situation I inquired about in a parallel post, since I can set up special rule for "no-connect", although the one thing that I was looking for there in the "scope", was the ability to apply the rule directly to a single via, which appears to be the one thing that is not in the list, although I guess that I could make a seperate via-specification that had a very very slightly different sized pad, and place it where I wanted the my "no-connect" via. It would have been nice to be able to just "select" a single via, as it appears that you can do with pads. Back to the Area question, the "Region" seems to be the answer. "Footprint" won't work with a BGA, since most vias related to a BGA are actually free vias, which are part of the fanout, and not the "Footprint". Now the only question is can I do this in DXP? Thanks, JaMi ----- Original Message ----- From: "Abd ulRahman Lomax" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Protel EDA Forum" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2004 8:25 PM Subject: Re: [PEDA] [dxp] Control Thermal Reliefs by Area > At 10:26 PM 1/7/2004, Hamid A. Wasti wrote: > >Abd ul-Rahman Lomax wrote: > >>In 99SE, this would be controlled by a Design Rule, and the choices for > >>scope are Board, Footprint, Component/Class, Net/Class, Pad Class and > >>Specification. I'm a little surprised not to see "via" there.... > > > >Look harder. It is there and always has been. It is located just below > >"Pad Specification" > > duh. as is the rest, i.e., Via Specification, Footprint-Pad, and Region. I > overlooked the slider.... > > >>Now, in DXP, it seems to be a little more complicated. > > > >I looked and could not come up with a way to do it, so I gave up after > >wasting an hour. So much for the claim by the Protel sales person that if > >you are an experienced user of 99SE, there is absolutely no learning curve > >to be just as productive in DXP. > > I'd say that was puffery. > > > A learning curve is involved only if you chose to take advantage of > > additional powerful features. Would you call that a blatant lie, an > > ignoramus telling the truth as he knew it, or in our politically correct > > world a poor victim of capitalist society merely taking liberties with > > the truth in order to earn enough commission to feed his family? > > I'd say somewhere between the second and the last, it can be hard to tell > the difference (though I don't know if Protel salespeople get commissions). > It is not entirely false, i.e., much of the basic functionality is the > same, but enough functions have changed in some way to cause delay as one > figures out how to do it in DXP. How much impact this has on productivity, > I can't personally say, because I haven't pushed a job through DXP yet. But > it will have an impact in the short term, I have no doubt. > > In real life, I'd ask the question on the DXP list, not here, if I wanted > to get the fastest and best answers. > > >What I was specifically trying to do in DXP was to have all vias connect > >to the planes without thermal reliefs. > > Well, I defined a via specification scope direct-connect rule in 99SE > (unchecking all the specifications so that it applied to all vias), then I > imported the board to DXP. I did get a rule with the same name, but the > scope did not mention vias... just All. > > And I don't see via or pad scopes in DXP Power Plane Connection Style > rules. What am I missing? > > (In 99SE, to reiterate, one may, for example, give free pads a PadName and > then use Free-PadName in the scope, allowing one to control connection > style and other characteristics like Solder Mask Expansion, pad-by-pad > simply by editing the pad name. Or one could have one size of via that is, > say, tented, and one size that is not.) > > The DXP way, as I understand it, would be to create a Query that selects > the objects to be affected by the rule. I can create a Query that selects > Vias with the Build Query command, but I don't see how to connect this with > the Rule, the "Query Builder" button in the Rule window does pop up a query > dialog, but the required options (Via, for example) are not there.... There > has got to be a way. > > If I were trying to get a job out, having managed to get it designed in DXP > and now I'm just trying to finish the details, I'd be fairly upset! (And, > as I said, I'd ask on the DXP list. But my own motive here is to explore a > bit what it is like to move to DXP as an old hand with 99SE, to find the > rough edges.) > > And I'm not thrilled that the rule from the 99SE file did not survive > import. (But maybe it did and I'm just not understanding what I'm seeing....) > > > > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * To post a message: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * To leave this list visit: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/leave.html * * Contact the list manager: * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Forum Guidelines Rules: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/forumrules.html * * Browse or Search previous postings: * http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
