How about some fuzzy DRC: The DRC checks for silk within either a maskclearance/2 in either the x or y direction. It does this by computing the refdes text length and creating a box representing it's extents. Then you add a fudge of 2 mils to see if it's getting into the mask apertures. Thinking about it, it's not so fuzzy.
Then a math-heavy correction or check could be done later. Oh, wait, maybe what I recommend is 'math heavy'? Phil DJ Delorie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I don't know too much about the gerber file format... but I have > > access to a commercial EDA program that cuts the silk layer using > > the solder mask. This seems what you have coded, but I never had > > problems with it. > > Well, there's two ways to cut silk. > > 1. Use a negative polarity layer to undraw it. > > 2. Modify the silk itself to just not draw there. > > The second is a better solution, although you have to calculate the > intersection of all silk lines with all pins/pads and do the heavy > math to figure out how to break up the silk into segments to you just > happen to not draw over the pins/pads. > > Negative polarity undraws was much easier to implement, although it > seems the easy way out isn't the right way after all. > > Maybe we could do the heavy math on user command, and have DRC > complain about it. Combining that with actually drawing the silk over > the pads on the screen so the user sees the problem might be > sufficient. >
