Copper Fill questions

[tracecom]

In what is my first real project in KiCad 7, I have a 4-layer PCB. My intention is to have some components on the front layer, other components on the back layer, In1Cu to be a ground layer, and In2Cu be a power layer. I thought I had accomplished that, but a colleague thinks otherwise. I shut off the view of all layers except In1Cu, and took the following three screen snips.

In1Cu.jpg shows the layer identified with a green hatch.
In1CuSelected.jpg shows the layer after I selected the outline of it in order to view the properties.
In1CuProperties.jps shows the layer and the properties, which I believe confirms that In1Cu is in fact a copper fill connected to GND.

Am I wrong, and if so, how do I correct my error(s)/

Thanks.

[3Dogs]

Change the outline display to solid (filled). It will make evaluation much easier.
But, it looks right to me.

[tracecom]

I didn’t find an option for the outline to be solid, but here are the three snaps again with the outline hatched.

[teletypeguy]

A solid outline is not quite as useful as seeing the actual plane – have you tried filling it to see what it looks like?

[teletypeguy]

Also, a really nice feature is to select which copper layers, to which a plane applies. Select your ground plane, edit properties and there are checkboxes – try adding top and bot layers as well as your inner. You will likely have some holes top and bot that can get filled by adding a gnd via where it does not hit any traces, but ties to the inner gnd and lets to top/bot flow in that area.

Here is just top, but fills in nicely. Flodding top/bot is free, and keeps the electromagnetic crap contained more:

[tracecom]

When I use the B command, a popup window indicates that the zone is being filled, but no fill shows up. Maybe I have something turned off, but I don’t know.

[teletypeguy]

Sounds like you do not have an edge cut pcb boundary. Zones won’t fill outside it. Slap a rectangle (even a quick crude one) on the edge cut layer around your board and then try it

[mf_ibfeew]

On the left toolbar there are two icons to switch between:

• zones displayed only with outline (tooltip: Show only zone boundaries)
• zones displayed with there complete fill (tooltip: Show filled areas of zones)

[mousey]

Just check that the fill Icons which are on the left tool bar 3 Icons up from bottom are set to display the fill, these just allow you to toggle fill on or off

[tracecom]

Thanks, but that didn’t work.

[tracecom]

That was it. Thanks.

[tracecom]

That was the issue. Thanks.

[teletypeguy]

I never realized those buttons were on the left toolbar to control visibility – good to know.