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Date: Sun, 5 Mar 2023 18:07:59 +0100
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Subject: Re: [geda-user] Connecting pads directly to polygons (was: Strange
 errors importing gschem into PCB)
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Cc: Bert Timmerman <ljh4timm AT xs4all DOT nl>
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From: "Richard Rasker (rasker AT linetec DOT nl) [via geda-user AT delorie DOT com]" <geda-user AT delorie DOT com>
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Hi Chad,

Op 05-03-2023 om 16:38 schreef Chad Parker (parker DOT charles AT gmail DOT com) 
[via geda-user AT delorie DOT com]:
> The correct way to do it is to use thermals or traces to connect pads 
> to planes, not to set the clearance to zero.

AFAICT, pcb's thermal function only works for through-hole components 
not pads. So if I want to fully embed for instance a TO252 tab in a 
polygon for maximum thermal contact, I need to lay a wide enough 
rectangular trace around the tab's pad, and then connect all four sides 
to the polygon using the 'J' (join) function? Yes, that works, but it 
seems rather clumsy. Isn't it an idea to extend the join function to 
pads as well?

It's mainly a problem at this moment because I'm updating an older, 
rather elaborate board with almost a hundred such connections, created 
some 5 years ago, when pcb's DRC didn't flag these as errors. Modifying 
all those pads as described will take some time, and I was hoping that 
there was a simpler way to embed the pads in polygons or else to 
suppress those DRC errors.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback,

Regards,

Richard