In Board Setup -> Design Rules, Does the “track spacing” clearance also apply to pad-to-pad clearance? I have not located a separate parameter for this check.
The reason I ask, is that I have a number of SMD capacitors of size 0603, and the DRC complains of inadequate spacing. I set up net classes for the appropriate nets and set spacing to 0.15mm (using the footprint editor, the pad to pad space masures at 0.18mm). The DRC still flags these caps. It lists both pads on the same footprint.
Not sure what to do about this. I read the tutorial about DRC by the way. The board house I use,( jlcpcb) may have pad to pad criteria, but I did not find it. In any case, I would think they would support 0603 footprints, as they are quite popular. Thanks for reading this far. You guys rock!
There is no direct “Board Setup -> Design Rules / Track Spacing”. There could be several settings you are confusing and I am not in the habit of speculating, so please be more clear in what setting you mean.
In general, The clearance around the pads is the same as the clearance for the tracks. (Unless you’re routing a differential pair, those have their own settings).
Sorry for the imprecise path.
First, I go to “Board Setup ->Design Rules> Net Classes” and create a new Net Class which I name “SMD 0603”. I change the “Clearanc” to 0.15mmj. I assign this Net Class to every net on the list that has capacitors in it, which is most of them.
Then I go from “Net Classes” to “Tracks and Vias”. I do not change what is there, the only number is “Width” of 0.2mm. All the entries under " The only numbers under “Solder Mask/Paste” are zeros, which I do not change. When I run DRC, I get:
I can not deduce any error from the given information.
I put a standard 0603 footprint on the PCB, and it has a distance of more then 0.6mm between the pads, which should be plenty.
Maybe you accidentally used a smaller package such as “C_0201_0603Metric” which is on the bottom of the screenshot. The thin red lines indicate the clearances, and in the lower footprint these overlap with the pads on the other side.
If this does not help, then upload your PCB file here. You can delete any confidential stuff. As long as it has a few of your capacitors and can reproduce the error it is all we need here.
THANK YOU!! You have correctly identified my mental error in assuming the footprint dimensions inherent in the name are metric. It will take me a while to redo the board with the correct footprint, but I feel certain it will work.
BIG THANKS!!
