Ground Plane connection missing in Protel 99SE

[jcdammeyer]

I was making some changes to a PCB and went back to 99SE from Altium with a save as 4.0 version.  Anyway, the original board had cross hairs on the vias and pads that intersect the ground plane net while the new one is missing the cross hairs on the pads and shows the nets as not routed.  The attached screen shots show what I mean. 

What needs to be done to reconnect the GND and VCC planes?

[jcdammeyer]

It appears the transition from Altium18 back to 99SE has created what 99SE calls Split Planes.  Double click on the GND layer that surrounds a pad and you get a choice to edit the pad or one of the two split planes VCC and GND.  Then the Split Plane (GND) can be selected and "Connect To NET" in the dialog assigned to GND.  Same with VCC.

That now shows the correct connection to the plane and also the gerbers for .GP1 and .GP2 show the appropriate connections.

As yet I've not figured out how to remove these "Split Planes".  Altium18 help says a plane can be split by drawing a line on it but I can't find how to undo that.

Also as the screen shot of a section of the gerber shows, the border around the plane is wide.  About 5x as wide as a gerber from the previous 2016 version.

[jcdammeyer]

More progress after studying the Protel 99SE help files.  The docs explain how to create a split plane but not how to remove it.  Turns out pretty simple.

1. Turn on only the minimal layers like Keepout or Mechanical,   the multi-layer and the ground plane.
2. Click on the tab for ground plane.  In my case it's green
3. Under Edit | Select | All on Layer and then click inside the ground plane outline.  A thin border around the board in the same place as the keep out lines shows up as selected. 
4. Delete this.
5. Do the same for the VCC plane.
6. Show used layers again.

Now the split plane properties no longer show up with a double click on ground plane tab.

As yet I have not figured out how to create the smaller border on the GND and VCC internal planes.

Probably not important unless the board fabricator decides to use it as the board size.  Be nicer to have it match the keep out dimensions.

If I find out I'll post a solution.  Otherwise hopefully I've documented well enough not only the problem but also the solution.