Shapes

Shapes at this point in the course will be related to making connections but Shapes can be used in other contexts to create areas on Classes / Subclasses that permit Shapes.

Shapes are typically added to Plane layers within the PCB to provide low resistance connections for Power Net distribution, usually the primary Power Nets, and to provide shielding to reduce electromagnetic interference. Shapes may also be added to external layers to further reduce connection resistance, where connected through the board, and better balance the amount of copper between Top and Bottom Layers. Shapes may also be required to handle voltage “islands” to make low resistance connections for secondary Power Nets.

Shapes added to routing layers, Etch layers in PCB Editor, will typically be Dynamic, that is, the Shape area will automatically clear any routing objects, and make thermal connections, where appropriate, when the Shapes are “up to date”. Shapes can also be Static but any Static Shapes on routing, Etch, layers won’t “yield” to other objects.

Shapes on Classes other that Etch will always be Static.

Shape Parameters

Shape Parameters (settings) are controlled globally, for all Shapes, from Shape>Global Dynamic Parameters and for individual Shapes from the right-click>Parameters menu when the Shape is selected.

Shape Edit Application Mode

Shape Edit mode was introduced to ease the editing of shapes on a design. Added as an new Application Mode it allows users to easily slide, drag, radius, chamfer, add notch shapes into their required outlines.

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