Polygon pour priority - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: jc101
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2017, 04:46:00 pm
content: Is there the ability in CS to set polygon pour priorities? I can do it in Eagle easily, and it seems the full Altium has an option to create priorities where pour areas overlap.I had some polygons on a layer all doing their thing, then put a layer wide pour on to make a ground fill, and it simply stomps over all the smaller pours. Also it seems these smaller pours get set to 'un-poured' and no matter what I do to turn them back on they are set like that. So it looks like in CS the ability to have overlapping polygons doesn't seem to be work, or has been crippled. I would be very glad to hear if this is not the case!

author: Ice-Tea
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2017, 08:39:39 pm
content: If CS is like AD:Tools -> Polygon Pours -> Polygon Manager

author: jc101
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2017, 08:43:35 pm
content: Quote from: Ice-Tea on January 07, 2017, 08:39:39 pmThanks, but sadly not, they stripped most of the menus out in CS. The functionality is probably there just no means to get at it. It's kind of a fundamental feature so quite annoying really.

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2017, 10:56:58 pm
content: Try right-click on one, or select one and look under Tools or Polygon Actions, "bring to front" or "send to back"?Tim

author: jc101
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 12:24:10 am
content: Quote from: T3sl4co1l on January 07, 2017, 10:56:58 pmI couldn't see anything like that, they seemingly are treated as single objects. What's odd is you have two overlapping on different nets and it doesn't report an DRC, it just prevents ones it has determined to stomp over as un-poured.I am assuming there must be a way hidden away in there somewhere....

author: trophosphere
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 07:42:17 pm
content: The highest priority is given to whichever polygon you pour first with subsequent polygon pours being of lower priority until the last polygon has the lowest priority. I don't believe there is a way to change the priority on demand. As far as the polygon being automatically set as unpoured, make sure you have unchecked the "Remove Islands Less Than" option in the polygon pour menu for your polygon of interest (update all polygon pours after doing this or the results will not show).In the following example, the silkscreen denotes the order in which the polygons were poured. Note that the first polygon takes precedence over all the other later poured polygons.

author: jc101
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 07:54:55 pm
content: That kind of makes sense, and I think i could work with that, thanks. So it's a case of do the smaller pours and then the final layer fill at the end.

author: trophosphere
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 08:01:55 pm
content: Yes, if you want your smaller polygons to show through then pour them first before pouring on the ground fill.

author: Ice-Tea
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 08:02:08 pm
content: If that doesn't help with your problem, get one of these:... and buy Altium Designer

author: jmarkwolf
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2017, 12:23:20 pm
content: Quote from: Ice-Tea on January 08, 2017, 08:02:08 pmLOL, Well put Ice-Tea!

author: Harvs
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2017, 12:44:52 pm
content: If you really needed to change something already done, you can hack the pcbdoc file.Open with a MCDF viewer like SSView or the viewer that comes with OpenMCDF.Find yourself the "D7038392280E4E229B9D9B5426B295" folder, and open the "Data" file contained in it (how you do this is different for each viewer). This holds the records for polygon pours as far as I can tell.On each polygon entry you'll find a tag POURINDEX=x, where the lower the number the closer to the front it will be.There is a bit to hacking the pcbdoc files, it's not what you'd call user friendly. But in this case if you stick to the same number of digits you wont have to resize the entry length field.

author: technotronix
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2017, 10:07:57 am
content: Check this out. May this will be helpful.http://techdocs.altium.com/display/ADOH/Polygon+Pour+Improvements

author: Zbig
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2017, 05:39:30 pm
content: Quote from: jc101 on January 08, 2017, 12:24:10 amAdded in 1.4, apparently.https://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-84478/l/altium-circuitstudio-v14-release:Quote