I often assemble my prototype PCBs myself using a stencil that is produced from my gerber files. In some of my board designs, I have some pads that I don't want included in the stencil so that they don't have solder put on them. How can I best exclude those pads from the paste layer gerber file? My current method is to select the components with the pads, go to the contextual menu > Component Actions > Explode Component to Free Primitives, select the pads I want excluded, delete those, export the gerber file(s), and then undo those changes. Is there a better way to do this?
My alternative is just to have the stencil produced with all of the pads cut out and then tape over the ones I want excluded, but this is less than ideal.
Thanks!