Troubles with accurate manual routing

Making PCB Layouts, Manual routing, Auto-routing, Copper pouring, Updating from Schematic, Manufacturing Output
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Hansel
Posts: 19
Joined: 09 Jan 2018, 11:39

Troubles with accurate manual routing

#1 Post by Hansel » 26 Jan 2018, 11:23

I have the following situation where I am trying to connect a wire to the side of an oval pad (see highlight in red):
Untitled1.png
Untitled1.png (11.58 KiB) Viewed 271 times


If I use the appropriate wire size, the trace sticks out to the side, effectively causing a DRC violation against the second pad:
Untitled2.png
Untitled2.png (9.38 KiB) Viewed 271 times


If instead I use a thinner trace and move it up manually, it looks exactly the way I want it as long as I keep the mouse button pressed:
Untitled3.png
Untitled3.png (10.14 KiB) Viewed 271 times


But as soon as I release the mouse button, the trace in question snaps to the center of the wider trace, effectively getting slanted:
Untitled4.png
Untitled4.png (12.89 KiB) Viewed 271 times


In summary: I have found no way of detailed manual trace control without getting overruled by some annoying automatism that screws up my manual fine tuning.

Is there some sort of setting that let's me turn this off? I don't want to turn off the grid as I still want to ensure my center lines and things are properly snapped.

doc
Posts: 15
Joined: 16 Nov 2017, 15:37

Re: Troubles with accurate manual routing

#2 Post by doc » 26 Jan 2018, 11:36

place a surface mount pad beside the pad you want to connect to.
connect these 2 pads with a smaller trace.
then connect the large trace to surface mount pad.
you may have to adjust the distance between the 2 pads so the larger trace doesn't extend too far.

farley
Posts: 157
Joined: 15 Sep 2011, 09:28

Re: Troubles with accurate manual routing

#3 Post by farley » 26 Jan 2018, 13:10

I've run into this issue several times. What I would like to see is a setting on traces to force them to either be horizontal (along X) or vertical (along Y).
See https://www.diptrace.com/forum/viewtopi ... =4&t=11308 for a work around concerning wide traces overlapping pads.

Tomg
Expert
Posts: 2028
Joined: 20 Jun 2015, 07:39

Re: Troubles with accurate manual routing

#4 Post by Tomg » 26 Jan 2018, 14:45

You could try this...
1) Let the narrow trace snap to the wide trace's end point at an angle.
2) Move the mouse pointer to the center of the narrow, angled trace and add another Node by pressing the "n" key once.
3) Enable the Free Trace Editing mode and move the newly-created Node towards the wide trace in such a way as to straighten out the narrow trace segment that connects to the pad.
4) Disable the Free Trace Editing mode by hitting the [Esc] key.
Tom

Hansel
Posts: 19
Joined: 09 Jan 2018, 11:39

Re: Troubles with accurate manual routing

#5 Post by Hansel » 26 Jan 2018, 22:15

Thanks, the node thingy did the trick, but boy is this cumbersome. Thanks everyone.

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