What is a PCB polygon?

What is a PCB polygon?

Polygons, also known as copper pours or polygon pours, are areas of the PCB that are filled or flooded with copper. This region is poured around existing components and traces, creating a region filled with copper hat has predefined clearance. Polygons can only be placed on signal layers.

What is polygon in Altium?

A polygon is a non-electrical drawing primitive. It is a multi-sided graphical object that can be placed on a schematic sheet. A polygon must have at least three sides and can be filled or unfilled.

Why do we use polygon pour?

Polygon pours are used to create a solid or hatched (lattice) area on a PCB layer. Also referred to as copper pours, polygon pours are used to fill irregularly shaped areas of a board, automatically pouring around existing objects, connecting only to objects on the same net as the polygon pour.

What is power plane in PCB?

What is a Power Plane? Often designated as a VCC in PCB design, a power plane is simply a flat plane of copper connected to a power supply. Similar to how the ground plane is connected to the ground connection of the power supply. Its purpose is to provide a steady supply of voltage to your board.

What is copper pour in PCB?

In electronics, the term copper pour refers to an area on a printed circuit board filled with copper (the metal used to make connections in printed circuit boards). Copper pour is commonly used to create a ground plane. Many early PCBs have a “hatched copper pour”, sometimes called a “cherry pie lattice”.

What is polygon pour?

A polygon pour is a group design object – that is, it is made up of simpler primitive objects, either regions, or tracks and arcs. On a signal layer, you can place a solid polygon pour to define an area for carrying large power supply currents, or as a ground-connected area for providing electro-magnetic shielding.

How do I combine two polygons in Altium?

Pour your polygons and place them where you want them. Make sure they are all set to the same net. Then select all of them (holding Shift + click), right-click, and select Unions–>Create Union from Selected Objects . This will “join” them so that you can move them all as one piece.

How do I change the shape of a polygon in Altium?

The command is performed by right-clicking on the desired polygon then selecting Polygon Actions » Modify Polygon Border. Once the command is launched, the cursor becomes a crosshair. Each time you click, a new vertex is added. As during polygon placement, the Shift+Spacebar keys can be used to change corner shapes.

How do you cut a polygon in Altium?

Polygon Pour Cutout

1. Click Place » Polygon Pour Cutout.
2. The cursor will change to a crosshair, starting inside the boundary of the polygon.
3. Move the cursor across the polygon.
4. Continue to click and move the mouse to define the cutout outline.
5. Right-click to exit polygon cutout placement mode.

Where to place polygons in the PCB editor?

Polygon Pours can only be placed in the PCB Editor. You can place them directly, or create them from selected primitives. To place a polygon, switch to the required layer and click Home | Pour | from the main menus. After launching the command, the Polygon Pour dialog will open: Define the properties of the Polygon before placing it.

How to pour polygons on a PCB in Altium?

Pour Over Same Net Polygons Only – pour the polygon in free space and also pour over existing polygons that belong to the same net. Remove Dead Copper – if this option is enabled, any area of the polygon that does not include at least one connection to another net object (such as a pad or via) is automatically removed.

How are polygon pours used in copper wiring?

A Polygon Pour (Place » Polygon Pour) placed on a signal layer creates a polygonal (multi-sided) area of copper, which can either be solid or hatched. As they are poured, Polygons automatically allow for clearances around electrical objects belonging to a different net, connect to objects of the same net, and fill irregularly shaped areas.

What can a polygon pour be used for?

A Polygon Pour (brighter red) being used to create a large GND area on a board. Polygon pours are used to create a solid or hatched (lattice) area on a PCB layer.