Enhanced Polygon Pour Manager
Contents
The Polygon Pour Manager dialog delivers further productivity-enhancements in Altium Designer, providing additional functionality with which to manage all polygon pours for your board. Additional abilities such as creation of a new polygon pour, access to associated properties dialog and polygon pour deletion, can all now be utilized from within this one location – collectively enriching the environment and taking polygon pour management to a whole new level!
The Polygon Pour Manager dialog.
Creating a New Polygon Pour
The Polygon Pour Manager dialog enables you to quickly create a new polygon pour from either an existing polygon pour, or from the board outline.
Create from Selected Polygon
Creation of a new polygon pour from an existing one essentially gives you the ability to quickly 'clone' that existing pour for use on another layer. To create the new polygon pour, simply select the existing polygon pour entry, in the View/Edit region of the dialog, and either:
- Click the Create New Polygon From button and choose the Selected Polygon entry in the pop-up menu that appears, or
- Right-click on the entry for the existing pour and choose Create New Polygon From»Selected Polygon from the context menu.
Clone an existing polygon pour for use on another layer in a matter of clicks\!
The properties dialog box of the new pour pops up to allow you to change its name, net, layer, and other attributes, though the settings by default are cloned from the original polygon.
Use the pop-up polygon properties to configure the polygon before it's added to the list.
When you are satisfied these are set correctly, clicking on OK will close the properties dialog and add the polygon to the list, sitting at the bottom of the repour order list.
To effect the changes made in the Polygon Pour Manager dialog, and pass them into the actual design, you must click the Apply button. Subsequent flicking between the original polygon pour and the new polygon pour created from it will show, in the viewing region of the dialog, that the latter is indeed a clone of the former.
The new polygon pour - a clone of the existing polygon pour, simply targeted to a different layer\!
The new polygon is inserted into the repour order according to the following logic:
| Source Polygon | Other Polygon | New Polygon |
|---|---|---|
| Same layer | Same layer | Below Both |
| Same layer | Different layer | Below Source |
| Different layer | Same layer | Above Source |
| Different layer | Different layer | Above Source |
The Pour Order section at the bottom of this dialog allows you to re-arrange the pour order of Polygons with the Move Up , Move Down , and Auto Generate buttons. You can also change order using mouse drag-and-drop functionality, which is far more expedient in designs featuring many polygon pours.
Create from Board Outline
To create a new polygon pour from the board outline, either:
- Click the Create New Polygon From button and choose the Board Outline entry in the pop-up menu that appears, or
- Right-click on the entry for the existing pour and choose Create New Polygon From»Board Outline from the context menu.
The Polygon Pour dialog will appear, from where you can define the properties for the pour as required, including its name and on which layer it is to be associated. Upon exiting the dialog, the new pour will be added to the list of existing pours in the Polygon Pour Manager dialog.
Create a new polygon pour from the outline of your board - quickly and efficiently.
To see the preview of the new board outline-based polygon pour, you will need to first click the Apply button. Applying commits and adds the polygon to the board.
After clicking the Apply button, and therefore committing the changes made in the Polygon Pour Manager dialog, the new polygon pour will be displayed in the viewing region.
Initially, the new polygon will appear last in the pour order. If it is assigned to a layer that is already being used for additional polygon pours it will, on 'applying' the changes, move its position in the pour order to appear above all other polygon pours assigned to that layer.
Accessing Polygon Pour Properties
Change the properties for any defined polygon pour directly from within the Polygon Pour Manager dialog. To access the Polygon Pour dialog, from where the changes can be made, either:
- Select the entry for the required polygon pour in the list and click the Properties button.
- Right-click on the entry for the existing pour and choose Properties from the context menu.
- Double-click within the Net field for the required polygon pour.
Gain fast access to a polygon pour's properties, and make changes as necessary, in the associated Polygon Pour dialog.
Polygon Pour Deletion
Delete one or more polygon pours simply by selecting their entries in the View/Edit region of the dialog, right-clicking, and choosing Delete from the context menu.
Removal of a pour is a breeze with the new Delete command\!