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How To Correctly Modify A Copper Pour/Split Plane Geometry in PowerPCB

A Copper Pour or Plane Area is the original polygon outline drawn to define an area to flood with copper hatching. A hatch outline is the calculated boundary (created by doing a flood or plane connect) that indicates where copper hatching will occur. The original outline and the hatch outlines cannot be viewed simultaneously on a design; there are two viewing modes that can be toggled in order to view either one.

Editing or deleting a cutout or the original outline should always be done while in Pour
Outline/Split Plane Outline mode. Editing a hatch outline is volatile, as a re-flood will cause the edits to be discarded and recalculated based on rules and obstacles. The same applies for cutouts, which do not appear in hatch outline mode, although a hatch outline will exist at the cutout location.

To modify a Copper Pour area or Split Plane, and to add, delete or modify a cutout, run the following steps:

Switch to Pour Outline Mode by entering the modeless command PO for Copper Pour or SPO for Split Planes.


Make the necessary modifications.


Select the PowerPCB menu Tools=>Pour Manager and then run Flood for Copper Pour or
Plane Connect for Split Planes.

If uncertain whether the session is currently in Outline mode, select the shape and then
right-mouse click and select Query/Modify to determine whether a Pour Outline/Plane Area is selected (which indicates the current mode is Outline mode), or a Hatch Outline/Plane Hatch Outline is selected (which indicates the current mode is Hatch mode).

This article was provided by Tony Stemberger


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