Adjust Solder Mask Expansion from PCBLIB Inspector

RE: Adjust Solder Mask Expansion from PCBLIB Inspector

fuubar67 — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 19:52:37 GMT

The override was in earlier versions of CS. Might be bug?

RE: Adjust Solder Mask Expansion from PCBLIB Inspector

mg1 — Wed, 02 Aug 2017 07:53:44 GMT

I can remember, that in Altium you had an option to adjust the value from the PCB inspector and was looking for the same in CircuitStudio, but as you say, that option has been removed. I did a fast google search and found a screenshot from Altium. Also made a screenshot from the inspector in CS. It is kind of annoying how specific features are randomly removed in CS!

But as mentioned above you can define rules for specific pads. How I currently do it: In the PCB go to "Classes" --> Create a "Pad class" and add the pads to the class for which you want to have a specific mask. --> Create a new "Mask" rule with higher priority and chose "Where the object matches" "Pad class" --> Your pad class.

RE: Adjust Solder Mask Expansion from PCBLIB Inspector

e14softwareuk — Tue, 25 Jul 2017 10:43:24 GMT

If there is one specific component then you can add a design rules to set a different expansion and apply the rule to either a named component (ref des) or footprint.If you are trying to set up in the library editor you can set the properties for a pad to specify a mask expansion value using the radio button and then entering a value (see image).

RE: Adjust Solder Mask Expansion from PCBLIB Inspector

tomridl — Tue, 25 Jul 2017 10:26:41 GMT

Hi Peter, thanks for the reply.

This will then change the solder mask expansion for all components (which I don't want to do). If I have only one fine pitch component that needs to be different to the default, then it seems I have to do each pin manually. It seems strange that there is a checkbox in the PCBLIB Inspector to override the default, but no place to enter in the override value!

RE: Adjust Solder Mask Expansion from PCBLIB Inspector

e14softwareuk — Tue, 25 Jul 2017 10:15:13 GMT

Hi Thomas, you can set the solder mask expansion in the PCB editor using Home > Design Rules; Mask > Solder Mask Expansion rule set. The override option is typically used when you need to set a few special pins with a different value to the rules you have defined.