oval plated holes

[RichardO]

How do I create oval plated through holes? I can create oval holes but when I overlay the custom pad I created

the thermal relief is not centered over the hole and can be shifted greater than the dimension of the hole. Also when

I view some parts in the 3D view the components bodies are shifted from the center of the part.

[nestor-sg]

Richard,

Tell me if the following is helpful; right-click over the workspace, select Properties (now you are in the PCB properties dialog), select the Grid & Units tab, and use the Grid Step Name list to select different layers and with each of them use the Grid Step Value to make your grid much more smaller. Then click Apply/OK. Now try again to move your custom Pad on top of the hole. You should be able to center it better.

Let me know... and in case that does not works you could attach a simple design file (as a ".zip") that we can play around with.

Good luck!

[RichardO]

I can place the pad over the hole exactly but it's the thermal relief that comes out shifted. The 3D view is not real important to me but it is nice to show others how the design is progressing. I always use all the grids at .001". I'll include a zip file of the part of the board in question. Look at the USB connector on the right , the oval mounting holes thermal reliefs are shifted.

P.S. I like your new fourms, I get responses back is a lot quicker now. Thanks

[nestor-sg]

Richard,

I checked your design file, it indeed looks weird how the thermal relief is located way far from the pad. Anyways, the problem is in the footprint for your USB port. I have no idea how the pad was created, but I change the pad to another form (for every single layer) and after I saved the footprint to my database and replace the current one I got the thermal relief to show correctly over the custom pad.

I attached to this message your same design file, I modified the USB port custom pad to another one so please open it and let me know if you can see the new one working fine. However, please note that I moved the footprint from its original position so don't use this file for your work since I might have messed something on it, I used it for fixing the USB portion only but I did not took any precautions with the rest of your layout.

I suggest you check the footprint on your database, I guess something got messed up in there. Make sure that when you create the custom pad, you apply the same shape for all layers, and that you don't specify a lock position or something like that.

Please let me know if you got it to work after these suggestions.

[RichardO]

nestor, thanks for the help. The layout position was just for you to look at . I copied your part to my database and I thought that I would be all set, but when I go and place it on my design, the DRC tells me that J6 (my part id) and J (??) are too close together or on top of each other. I have no part J and if I delete the USB PORT J6, part J disappears. I looked at the part in the database and I can't find out where that part J is coming from. When I place the part a J6 and a J appears on the silkscreen. Can there be 2 components in 1 part? Part J does not even appear in my Parts tab and this problem is keeping my netlist from finding the pins on J6.

I hope that wasn't too confusing.

Thanks

Rich

[nestor-sg]

I thought you might run into problems, don't use the part I played with because I did not took any precautions with it. I just used it to redo the pads and fix the thermal relief issue you were having, but it was meant to show only that you needed to redo your custom pads. And what is happening is that it looks like the footprint has two parts overlapping each other... one named J6 and the other one named whatever refdes you give when you place it.

I would really recommend that you redo the whole part, I moved the pads around here in my computer, and the silkscreen top drawings and yes it looks like two components are overlapped making only one... this is not acceptable for the DRC...

Just redraw your USB port footprint from scratch, since in order to fix it pretty much we'll need to delete everything to find exactly where the extra component is residing. In my response I mention that you should only use my attachment (your file basically) as reference, but for no reasons use it on your work, I only wanted you to see how moving the pads and redo-ing them would fix that first problem you reported. I wish I could give you better news but it looks like the footprint is not built correctly, at some point on the creation process it got problems. Do a new one from scratch... Tools >> Database >> Database Manager... and within the Parts section you'll see the New part button right nex to the parts title... take it from there.

[RichardO]

nestor, I made a new part from scratch and everything is great now. The problem seems to be from my custom pad, whenever I use it the thermal relief is about .5" away, not sure why but I got it done.

Thanks again for all your help

Richard

[nestor-sg]

Richard,

I'm glad that worked out, sometimes when a drawing has some hidden misplacements is better to re-draw it, the reason is that when the picture (footprint) is integrated as a unique entity, it makes it very difficult to go an change something that is already merged.

Thanks for letting us know that now is working...