BoardSurfers: Voiding Text in Copper Shapes

Almost every PCB design includes different types of shapes, mainly for ground and power connections. Shapes in a PCB usually represent copper areas. When designing a PCB, you might want to create a square at the board edge which is an exposed copper for documentation purposes or for adding text or logo of your company. After adding text or logo on a copper shape, you need to create a void to remove the copper where text is placed on the PCB. All this can be done in Allegro^® PCB Editor by adding text and then converting it to voids using the shape operations. In this blog post, we will discuss converting text to void in the two basic shape types, dynamic and static.

Voiding Text in Dynamic Shapes

You can convert text to void in a dynamic shape in just three simple steps. Let’s see how you can do this.

 Create and add dynamic shape

When you are converting text to voids, the very first step is to create a dynamic shape on the board. Change the application mode to Shape Edit. Choose Edit - Z-Copy, choose ETCH/TOP in as class/subclass in the Options tab. Also, select the Create dynamic shape check box and set the value of Offset to 20.

To add a dynamic shape, just click on the board outline.

 Add text to the board

The next step is to add text to the board. Choose Add – Text, click on the board, and type the text.

Convert text to void

It’s just that simple. This is the part where you convert text to void.

To convert text to void in a dynamic shape, you just need to follow these steps:

a) Right-click the dynamic shape.

b) Choose Shape Operations – ANDNOT.

c) Click the text.

The text is converted to void.

Voiding Text in Static Shapes

Converting text to void in a static shape is even easier.

 Add text to the board

In this step, you need to add a text to the board that you want to void. Choose Add – Text, click on the board, and type the text.

 Create a Static Shape

Now, you need to add a static shape on the board. Follow these steps to add a static shape:

a) Choose Shape – Rectangular.

b) Select Static solid from the Type drop-down in the Options tab.

c) Create a rectangular shape on the board.

 Move text inside a static shape

Set the application mode to General Edit, click and drag the text inside the static shape you just created.

 Convert text to void

Enable the Shape Edit mode again and choose Shape Operations – ANDNOT. Click the text and you can see that it is converted to void.

The Results

That’s It! In this blog, we have covered how to convert text to void in dynamic and static shapes. You can see the results in the image below.

If you want to try these steps in detail, click here for the Rapid Adoption Kit that describes these steps in detail.

Note: The above link can only be accessed by Cadence customers who have a valid login ID for https://support.cadence.com.

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