Having trouble clearing ground plane area

Making PCB Layouts, Manual routing, Auto-routing, Copper pouring, Updating from Schematic, Manufacturing Output
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auto-mation-assist
Posts: 9
Joined: 31 Jan 2021, 17:25

Having trouble clearing ground plane area

#1 Post by auto-mation-assist » 09 Sep 2021, 09:40

I'm attempting to clear a area on layer 2 ground plane to reduce capacitive effects to parts mounted above it on layer 1. I can place a poly shape on the ground plane layer and it will clear the copper pour area inside the shape when I change properties to layer 2 route keep out. Then as a number of changes are made to the poly line points on separate occasions and updates to the pour is completed after each change it pours copper back in to the keep out area for some reason and there is no way that I see to get the copper back out.

I have no idea why happens but it seems to me that a menu item has to be added in the properties list for poly lines that is specific to clearing part of a copper pour on any layer. I suspect that the keep out function is not really programmed to do this and looking for another way to accomplish this.

Tomg
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Joined: 20 Jun 2015, 07:39

Re: Having trouble clearing ground plane area

#2 Post by Tomg » 09 Sep 2021, 11:12

I haven't been able to duplicate what you are seeing. Can you post a partial screenshot of the problem area? All I can think of right now is to zoom in and look for gaps in the polylines; or try using a polygon instead of polylines if you haven't already.
Tom

auto-mation-assist
Posts: 9
Joined: 31 Jan 2021, 17:25

Re: Having trouble clearing ground plane area

#3 Post by auto-mation-assist » 11 Sep 2021, 10:25

I will zoom in and look for the potential gaps in the poly lines as you suggest and if I see none will try the polygon suggestion.

auto-mation-assist
Posts: 9
Joined: 31 Jan 2021, 17:25

Re: Having trouble clearing ground plane area

#4 Post by auto-mation-assist » 11 Sep 2021, 12:26

I zoomed in and found a very small gap right were the poly-lines start and finish location was. Manually editing the poly-line outline properties corrected my problem and now the area clears of copper as desired. This gap likely appeared while doing some prior editing and is why it cleared of copper initially and them would no longer clear.

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