Questions about Sprint-Layout 5.0

[MaximRecoil]

Sprint-Layout has a "Zone" tool which, when you hover over it says, "Draw filled areas". I've been using it to make certain traces which have a non-standard shape. Is that going to work? Also, I've connected traces I've drawn with the zone tool to traces I've drawn with the normal track tool, by just overlapping them, like this:



The selected trace (pink) was made with the zone tool, and the blue trace it is overlapping was made with the track tool. I want it to just be one trace, which is what it looks like when nothing is selected:



Is there something I need to do to join/merge them? I have the same question about traces that lead into / out of the ground plane around the edge of the board.

Also, how do you create the board outline?

[scopeman]

Upgrade to V6.0 wayyyy better.

[ebastler]

I think this will work. In the end, it's all copper on the PCB; it does not matter how many separate polygons or lines were overlaid to create a given structure.

The particular example you show looks a bit odd though. What are you trying to achieve? Do you feel that you need the extra width (of the two parallel traces, and then the broad trace) due to high currents? But then, at the upper edge of the image, the traces seem to converge into a narow trace again?

[MaximRecoil]

I think this will work. In the end, it's all copper on the PCB; it does not matter how many separate polygons or lines were overlaid to create a given structure.

Yes, it worked fine. I had these manufactured a few weeks ago.

The particular example you show looks a bit odd though. What are you trying to achieve? Do you feel that you need the extra width (of the two parallel traces, and then the broad trace) due to high currents? But then, at the upper edge of the image, the traces seem to converge into a narow trace again?

That's the way it was done on the original PCB from 1984 that I was replicating:

[ebastler]

Yes, it worked fine. I had these manufactured a few weeks ago. [...]
That's the way it was done on the original PCB from 1984 that I was replicating:

Thanks for the reply, and good to hear that the replicated layout has worked out well for you.

It's an interesting layout by the original designer anyway... Is this a sensitive analog circuit, where he might have wanted to shield the central pin from surface leakage currents? Or maybe it was just meant to be a stronger trace, but then he ran out of room at the upper edge...

[MaximRecoil]

Thanks for the reply, and good to hear that the replicated layout has worked out well for you.

It's an interesting layout by the original designer anyway... Is this a sensitive analog circuit, where he might have wanted to shield the central pin from surface leakage currents? Or maybe it was just meant to be a stronger trace, but then he ran out of room at the upper edge...

It isn't analog. It's a small daughter board which consists of a Z80A CPU, 4 TTL chips, two proprietary Ricoh chips (RP5C01 and RP5H01), and some resistors and capacitors.

The upper, narrow part of that trace doesn't go far; it quickly terminates at a through-hole pad:



And this is how it looks in my layout:



As you can see, it is connecting that through-hole pad to a fat trace on both sides of the board, both of which go to the big ground planes around the edge of each side of the board. In any case, I decided to update the file, even though it works fine as-is and I don't know if I'll ever need to have more of them manufactured: