At 06:35 AM 10/23/01 -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >By placing vias with P-V, you're actually placing double vias. The manual >routing will automatically place vias as you change layers. If you press the >End key right after it removes those vias, to force a redraw, I think you'll >find that there are still vias there.
I was writing about vias removed -- or apparently removed -- when routing over a trace that includes a via. I *think* I've seen such vias disappear. But it is certainly worth checking it out by redrawing the screen. Loop removal often leaves screen artifacts, and disappearing vias could be part of that. Loop removal is, I think, slightly buggy in a reasonably harmless way. Sometimes it leaves extra track, sometimes it rips it up; it may have to do with track endpoints not being coincident, I haven't figured it all out. I just know that, even with the minor bugs, loop removal is one of the greatest tools to come along in years. I would seriously miss it if it were gone. As a note for Protel newcomers and the occasional old-timer who has overlooked loop removal, it's easy to misunderstand what loop removal is and why one should normally leave it on. Its purpose is not to eliminate ground loops and the like. Rather it simply allows rerouting a track without deleting any of it. When a new track duplicates an existing connection, loop removal will rip up the previous routing of that connection. It saves a *lot* of time. And if you really need to route a loop, you just turn it off while you are routing the loop and then turn it back on when you are done. It does not remove all loops on the board, just one newly created! (Loop removal is an option on the Tools/Preferences page. Together with "avoid obstacle" and the snap indicators (those circles that appear when snap is active) it makes Protel manual routing shine, I can route fine pitch traces when I can barely see them, saving a lot of zooming in and out. Avoid obstacle only helps in routing traces at minimum separation when one can bang the new trace up against the virtual obstacle created by the clearance rule. In the other direction, when one wants to pull back a trace to minimum clearance, I resort to moving the trace back and forth, watching for its extension to appear when the rules are satisfied by the current proposed track, or disappear when the trace (that would be placed if avoid obstacle were turned off) violates the clearance rule. This takes much more time and is more difficult to do at low zoom levels than routing in the other direction. Having a command, perhaps a key to press, to pull a pending track back to minimum clearance, would be great, as would the "complete connection" command that has elsewhere been selected. This command simply reduces a connection (rat's nest) line to track. Tango DOS PCB had it, it saved a lot of time when the completion of a connection requires moving off-screen, plus a little time on the last segment of every track, since one could routinely hit the slash key (Tango's implementation of this) while routing when one wanted the remaining track to go from the currently placed end to the other end of the rat's nest. That is much faster than requiring that the cursor actually be placed at the other end and clicked, *plus* one could easily make the last segment be off-angle, which itself saves, at least, track segments and work, plus if one *wants* the last segment to be off-angle, the only way to do it now requires several steps. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Abdulrahman Lomax Easthampton, Massachusetts USA * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * To post a message: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * To leave this list visit: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/leave.html * * Contact the list manager: * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Forum Guidelines Rules: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/forumrules.html * * Browse or Search previous postings: * http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
