PCB News - The difference and usage of Polygon Pour, Fill, Plane in Altium

Polygon Pour: Pouring copper. Its function is similar to Fill, and it also draws a large area of copper; but the difference lies in the word "fill", copper filling has unique intelligence, and it will actively distinguish the network of vias and solder joints in the copper filling area. If the via and the solder joint belong to the same network, the copper filling will connect the via, the solder joint and the copper skin together according to the set rules. On the contrary, a safe distance will be maintained between the copper skin and the vias and solder joints. The intelligence of copper filling is also reflected in its ability to automatically delete dead copper.

Polygon Pour Cutout: Establish a copper digging area in the copper irrigation area. For example, some important networks or components need to be hollowed out at the bottom. Like common RF signals, they usually need to be hollowed out. There is also the RJ45 area under the transformer.

Polygon Pour: Cut the copper-pouring area. For example, if you need to optimize or reduce the copper filling, you can use Line to divide the reduced area into two copper fillings, and directly delete the unnecessary copper filling area.

Fill means to draw a solid copper sheet and connect all the wires and vias in the area together, regardless of whether they belong to the same network. If there are two networks VCC and GND in the drawn area, the Fill command will connect the elements of these two networks together, which may cause a short circuit.

In summary, Fill will cause a short circuit, so why use it?

Although Fill has its shortcomings, it also has its use environment. For example, when there are high-current power supply chips such as LM7805 and AMC2576, a large area of copper is required to dissipate the heat of the chip. Then there can only be one network on this copper, and the Fill command is just right.

Therefore, the Fill command is often used in the early stages of circuit board design. After the layout is completed, use Fill to draw the special areas, so as to avoid making mistakes in the subsequent design.

In short, in the circuit board design process, these two tools are used in conjunction with each other.

Plane: Plane layer (negative film), suitable for the whole board with only one power supply or ground network. If there are multiple power or ground networks, you can use line to draw a closed box in a certain power or ground area, and then double-click the closed box to assign the corresponding power or ground network to this area. ) Can reduce a lot of engineering data, and the computer can respond faster when processing high-speed PCBs. In the process of revision or modification, you can deeply appreciate the benefits of plane.

Method 1: When repairing copper, you can use PLANE [shortcut key P+Y] to repair obtuse angles.

Method 2: Select the copper skin that needs to be trimmed, and the shortcut key M+G can adjust the shape of the copper skin arbitrarily.

The above is the introduction of the difference and usage of Polygon Pour, Fill, Plane in the PCB board design Altium. Ipcb also provides PCB manufacturers and PCB manufacturing technology.