Automatic solder paste openings as an option
Currently solder paste layer (openings for the stencil) is generated automatically. There is an option to add more, but what’s generated automatically can’t be removed. It’s fine in the most cases for standard components, but not necessarily for some non-standard, especially with non-standard copper lands.
It will be very useful to have full control, that is to add an option to disable automatic paste opening for the SMD pads.
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It will work better (I mean will have more chance to be considered for a future update) if you click on the voting button:
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This may also cover the need for a feature to remove the solder paste from test points (pads).
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Having SMD pads without solder paste is a common requirement. I need this for connecting spring-loaded probes to test points etc. as well as for cases when the PCB is mated with spring pins to an enclosure. I worked around this by making my pads smaller than the stencil offset and creating a copper shape in PCB design then pasting it into the PCB footprint editor. However this gives me a lot of track-to-pad errors in Design Rule Check because DSPCB does not know that the copper shapes are supposed to be connected to those pads.
Really, how difficult would it be to add a "No Solder" checkbox under Pad Properties?
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I would like to be able to change the paste mask shape.
Foe example, if I have an IC with an exposed pad that needs to be solder to the ground plane. I want a nice big square ground plane under the IC but only a small round opening in the paste mask for a small dot of paste for soldering.
It is quite annoying that if I design a part with an exposed pad that I will have to design the pad a small circle just so I can get the right size paste mask. Then I will have to add a copper pour under the IC to accommodate the pad on the PCB layout. If the copper of a part could be different from its paste aperture that would be great!
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I ended up manually editing the paste mask gerber file to remove apertures from certain pads. It requires some understanding of how gerber files work, and is a slow manual process, but seems to be the only way to avoid solder paste on pads for mating with spring/pogo-pins at the moment.
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It is effectively very painful to get testpoint without Solder Paste.
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Jacques, it will work better (I mean will have more chance to be considered for a future update) if you click on the voting button on the top of the page:
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