Author Topic: Join two [different] ground planes on Proteus 8 Professional  (Read 9249 times)

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Offline DiBoscoTopic starter

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Join two [different] ground planes on Proteus 8 Professional
« on: January 17, 2018, 02:04:54 pm »
Folks,

I have a two layer PCB that has, for historic reasons, two different ground planes. These two ground planes are on the bottom of the PCB.

It is important for EMC reasons when having tracks cross the two planes on the top side of the PCB, that underneath those tracks on the top, the two planes on the bottom are joined. I can't find a way of doing this. When I try and draw a third small plane to overlap the edges of the two it, of course, just clears the requisite space according to design rules.

On a previous CAD system I've just been able to "draw" a patch of copper to do this without it being an part of the electrical tests.

Is there a way to do this on Proteus please?

Many thanks.
 

Offline spudboy488

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Re: Join two [different] ground planes on Proteus 8 Professional
« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2018, 12:29:28 pm »
I would think you need to wire the the two grounds together on the schematic since they probably have different net names. That's why you're getting errors when you try to brute force a connection. It would also be good for documentation to add the connection on the schematic, maybe with explanation text as to why it's done.
 

Offline bandgap

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Re: Join two [different] ground planes on Proteus 8 Professional
« Reply #2 on: February 01, 2018, 02:57:13 am »
I would think you need to wire the the two grounds together on the schematic since they probably have different net names. That's why you're getting errors when you try to brute force a connection. It would also be good for documentation to add the connection on the schematic, maybe with explanation text as to why it's done.

This won't work in Proteus. If you connect the two grounds together in the schematic, they will become one net and you will lose the second net.

...snip...
On a previous CAD system I've just been able to "draw" a patch of copper to do this without it being an part of the electrical tests.

Is there a way to do this on Proteus please?

Yes, this is what the special style "BRIDGE" is used for. Just draw a trace with the bridge style to connect the two planes together as shown in the attached image. You can change the BRIDGE style to be whatever desired thickness you'd like. Take caution, though, the "BRIDGE" trace style is ignored by the DRC.

-Clayton


« Last Edit: February 01, 2018, 02:58:53 am by bandgap »
 


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