I’m working on a PCB right now and I’ve just about completed it but as I attempt to introduce the copper fill zone for the ground plane; I’m having some issues with isolated copper islands.
On my fill zone I have the setting set to remove islands always, but the islands don’t seem to get removed. Here’s a look at the zone properties:
I figured I would be able to connect these islands with VIAs, since the ground plane is on both layers. When I place the VIA it’s properly updated with the GND net, but the isolated copper island warning does not go away in the DRC leading me to believe it still thinks the island is not connected to the appropriate ground VIAs.
I’ve included some additional screenshots in the comment of my post below, since I’m unable to embed multiple images in a single post.
I’d be happy to share my kidcad_pcb but I’m currently not able to upload files as my account is still a little bit to new. If anyone has any suggestions on how I can fix these isolated copper islands, that would be amazing.
There’s a FAQ by @jmk which explains how to level up yourself so that you can attach files; I don’t have the link handy. Or wait for an admin.
Normally I don’t get isolated islands at all when I fill, the area stays bare. What I suspect is that you had missing connections before you did the fill so the islands are on the GND net but not connected to the rest of the GND areas. You should finalise all connections before doing a fill even if you expect the fill to make the main connection later. Run DRC early and often.
That’s a good tip I have been making sure to ensure the zone is refilled myself manually with B. I do believe running the DRC also refills the zone if it’s been removed with Ctrl+B.
That’s quite possible, this particular PCB did not come with an original project file. Just fabrication(gerber) files which I’ve used to modify it to add some additional components. I thought I had corrected all the nets/tracks. I did not get any concerning errors or warnings before the fill was placed. I did indeed assume the ground plane would cover the GND connections across the board however; There are quite a few Isolated islands after placing the fill though, about 23. I figured I’d see that number go down by placing VIAs in the correct locations to ensure the top/bottom layers were connected, but it’s quite possible I’ve missed something.
I’ve included my kicad_pcb; If anyone who has a little more experience is willing to take a peak and let me know what exactly I’ve done wrong here that would be so incredibly helpful. I have admittedly been watching videos and reading tutorials for hours for what I feel like should be a rather simple issue to rectify.
I am confused about these yellow ovals. What are they? I have set visibility for only two layers; dark red for front copper and dark blue for back copper.
As I said you cannot expect that the fill will magically connect up all the GND pads. You have to make the connections first or some pads may be unreachable and create islands albeit still on the GND net.
They’re mounting holes/cut outs in the PCB. Likely I could have done this with the edge cut layer, but tutorials on how to create mounting hole suggested using a footprint with a VIA; So that’s what I ended up doing.
So DRC is telling us that the air is not connected electrically?
I can see that some zone areas between tracks do not have an electrical connection.
I am thinking that you need to go to four layer and use some zone keep-outs. But your board design is done very differently from what I do; hard for me to see the “big picture.”
No, you shoudd remove the fill, then run tracks until there are no more ratsnest lines, or alternatively there are no more incomplete connections in DRC, then do the fill, then try to fill the blank areas by creating a via if the other side is GND copper.
