**I'm having some trouble getting eagle to connect SMT pads to the internal ground plane below them.**
Through hole components connect fine, and thermal bridges appear as expected, but when I route from the pad to a via, then select the ground plane, eagle doesn’t recognise the connection, and the airwires remain.
I’ve noticed that there’s an option to define a layer as a power plane:(layers window>double click on colour of layer), but this just has the effect of placing filled ground pads under every via.
That’s normal, because you don’t solder via’s. Well normally you don’t.
I’d like to know how to add thermals to via’s, though, since I do have to solder them sometimes. The only way I can think of doing it is creating a single pad part and replacing the via with the part, but I’m not really an expert with all the Eagle settings so there might be something you can do somewhere else.
TheDirty:
“I’d like to know how to add thermals to via’s, though, since I do have to solder them sometimes. The only way I can think of doing it is creating a single pad part and replacing the via with the part, but I’m not really an expert with all the Eagle settings so there might be something you can do somewhere else.”
In the DRC, under the supply tab, there is a check box labeled “Generate thermals for vias”.
It’s a pad in a copper plane, with connections to the plane made by spokes. The spokes give a thermal relief function, by preventing the copper plane from absorbing heat when the pad is soldered, ensuring a good solder joint. If a simple hole was used in the copper plane, too much heat would be conducted away during soldering for the solder to melt properly. They aren’t really necessary for manual soldering, but are essential for wave soldering.
Thanks again, much appreciated.