Multiple connections remove others

[ygoe]

Hello,

I have two adjacent screw terminal pins in my design that are directly connected because it’s cleaner to use separate terminals for the two wires that will be connected (and two wires may not fit together in one terminal). But there may be a big current running through this path, maybe 6 A or so at 24 V. One wire goes to the power supply, the other goes to the common anode of an LED stripe. My circuit also runs from that voltage, but with much lower current.

I’ve already got a 2 mm trace on one side of the board directly between the two pins. The terminal block has a pitch of 3.5 mm so it’s a very short trace.

Now I wanted to add another 2 mm trace on the other side for better connection. But as soon as I draw the second trace on the back side, the already existing trace on the front side disappears.

Can I not connect two points on multiple paths? Is there an option to allow this? Or is it a bad idea or unnecessary?

[gkeeth]

Try Right Click -> Router Settings -> Uncheck “remove redundant tracks”

(wording may differ depending on version)

[floating-io]

In the interactive router settings, there are various optimization options (“Optimize pad connections” might be relevant here). Have you tried turning those off?

It sounds like the router is trying to be helpful.

[ygoe]

Thank you, the “redundant tracks” option was indeed enabled (probably the default). Deactivating it allowed me to add the second track on the other side.

[Amit_Bahl]

Hi ygoe,

To ensure you retain the existing trace on the front side while creating the second trace on back side:

1. Click on the route layer option as shown in the image below:
   

   

2. Right-click to get a drop-down menu. Here, select interactive router settings
   

   

3. Unselect the option “Remove redundant tracks”
   

   

Also, you can connect two points on multiple paths. It is the standard practice to route across multiple layers for high power PCB boards.