Well, technically the almost all the vias are going to have something soldered into them: I had to create all of the elements for the PCB by hand, and instead of creating "real" elements I just drew outlines in the silk layer and placed vias where pins will go. The documentation says this is a bad idea, but I can't figure out why: you use vias to create elements, right? So why can't you just place vias? They "look" ok in the PCB and the print ok as well...perhaps I'm missing something?
The documentation says that the vias will be covered (except for the hole) by the solder mask, but isn't that something only used in manufacturing? I'm pretty sure my board will print out OK if I'd like to make it at home, but if I send it to a manufacturer, they'll be using a solder mask, right? This is still very confusing: for instance, why does the solder mask not show traces? Now I'm really lost. I'm starting to think perhaps that I used the "wrong" layers. p.s. F10 just brings up the File menu in my version of PCB, I'll check about thermal reliefs in the documentation
Without seeing the "copper bits" I am guessing that they are there to provide >thermal relief around the via. It is probably not necessary unless >you are planning to solder something into the via. I believe you can use the >thermal command (F10 in my version of PCB) to add a thermal relief to a via.
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