Mail Archives: geda-user/2014/03/06/15:56:54
The point of a thermal (technically, "thermal relief") is to break the
thermal connection between the pin and the copper. Technically, there
are three states for "a thermal" in pcb: No connection (pin is
electrically isolated from the copper), a solid connection (no thermal
relief at all), or one of the many types of thermal reliefs.
You can rotate between the thermal options by shift-clicking with the
thermal tool.
Thermal reliefs are typically needed when a part will be
hand-soldered, as soldering irons typically have a hard time dealing
with the big heatsink you're trying to solder to :-)
For reflow soldering, it really doesn't matter if you have a thermal
or not, as long as the reflow profile accomodates the design.
http://www.delorie.com/pcb/docs/gs/gs.html#thermal
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