Lesson learned: Via too close to trace

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1

I’m just getting into PCB’ing and thought I’d pass on my recent lesson learned. On the backside of a very simple board, I stuck a via too close to a neighboring trace AND made it a square via instead of a round one. Needless to say, the traces shorted to each other. Luckily for me, the short was relatively easy to spot and even easier to fix (one gouge with a razor blade fixed it).

Lesson learned: The SparkFun DRC Bot isn’t omniscient!

Here’s what it looked like before I took the razor to it:

2

Your PCB software DRC should have caught it, anyway.

3

If you submitted gerber files, and the via is actually touching the track, then the DRC bot has no way of knowing they aren’t supposed to be touching…

4

The CAD program DRC should have found that - was a DRC check not run before outputting Gerbers?

5

I used the SFE drc file for Eagle, actually. I’m surprised myself that it didn’t catch it.

6

It must have an error. Perhaps you should contact SFE about it.