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How can I tell what Altium thinks of my solder mask?
That’s the easiest way to see what altium thinks about your soldermask. Otherwise, you probably sent the wrong gerbers, or there is perhaps a conversion problem. I always check everything with a second tool (gerbview, from the kicad suite).
Can you draw with a solder mask on copper?
Because keep-outs are for copper, and won’t do anything if you don’t have a polygon pour. Solder masks are already “negative” layers (solid areas have no soldermask) so you just have to draw with regular primitives.
Where do you put a region KeepOut in Altium?
A region keepout can only be placed on a signal layer, plane layer or the Keepout layer. After launching the command, the cursor will change to a cross-hair and you will enter region keepout placement mode. Placement is made by performing the following sequence of actions:
When to use solder mask to prevent shorts?
Solder mask is not reliable enough to trust to prevent shorts when there’s otherwise a mechanical contact between two surfaces. If you add solder mask above these vias, that will stop your heatsink from making good contact with the surrounding copper (that you’re clearing of solder mask to allow close contact to).
What does a solder mask on a PCB do?
PCB solder mask (also called solder resist) is an epoxy or photoimageable polymer layer that protects copper on the surface layer of the PCB. This layer covers exposed traces on the surface of the board, preventing oxidation and providing an extra protective barrier against mechanical damage.
Why is there a minimum solder mask sliver?
Minimum Solder Mask Sliver helps identify narrow sections of solder mask that may cause manufacturing problems later. Ensuring that there is a minimum width of solder mask across the board, this rule checks the distance between any two solder mask openings that are equal to or greater than the user-specified value.
Where to put a silkscreen on a solder mask?
Silkscreen is one important aspect of design that will need to be placed on top of your solder mask. You can easily verify silk screen to solder mask clearances and other clearances in Altium Designer’s PCB editor. See how you can define silkscreen to solder mask clearance in Altium Designer.