Problems with Thru-holes

From what I've seen, thermal and anti-pads (as defined in a padstack) are only used on Negative planes.  Since you've got Positive planes (and if you have dynamic shapes), you can set the shape parameters on thru-hole pins to get your thermals.

Have you went into SETUP/Design Parameters and 'refreshed' your planes? If not, that might fix your issue.

Good day.  Mitch

Thanks for the advice guys, but I am still unable to get anything to work, using either positive or negative planes. The PCBEditor15.7  Documentation says what is stated below, whichseems to imply that it would automatically put in the right thing. But, this is not what I am seeing.

 So, from what you are saying, it seems that if I want a pad that connects to the (negative) ground plane, if I define "circles" for the antipads, it should not connect them, correct? that is not what I am seeing. Can someone please walk me through or point me to a step-by-step example of how to actually design a thru-hole/via and plane for PCBEditor? It is my first design with this software, as is probably clear from all my questions.

 Thanks!

Megan

"Standard Pad Shapes
Allegro PCB Editor displays pads using standard geometric shapes. On the Layers tab of the Padstack Designer, you can choose from the pad types illustrated below in photoplots.



  Pad Type                          Description                      Graphic Displayed
  Regular
                                          Positive pads (black), with one of the following regular shapes:
 
                                           Null
                                           Circle
                                           Square
                                           Rectangle
                                           Oblong
                                           Octagon

 Thermal relief
                                           Used instead of regular pads to absorb heat conducted through connect lines. Thermal reliefs can be:
 
                                           A negative pad on a positive copper area (shape). The thermal relief may be plotted as a regular pad flash (circle) with two lines.
                                          A positive pad on an embedded metal layer that distributes a voltage, such as power or ground.

 Anti-pads
                                         Negative pads (clear, surrounded by black), usually a circle, to prevent connection of a pin to an embedded metal layer.
 
 ...

Each pin can have all types of pads (regular, thermal relief, anti-pads, and custom shapes) defined on every ETCH layer of the design. For negative artwork layers, Allegro PCB Editor uses thermal reliefs and anti-pads. For positive artwork layers, Allegro PCB Editor uses just three regular pads. This means a pin can be put anywhere on the design, and Allegro PCB Editor photoplots the correct pad, whether the location is in an open area or inside a filled shape.


Photoplot Pad Data
When you create plots, Allegro PCB Editor uses the padstack information to write the photoplot pad data for a pin on a particular layer. Allegro PCB Editor determines the pad types for photoplotting as follows:

How Allegro PCB Editor Determines Pad Types for Photoplotting 

If the Pin Is...                                                                              Uses Pad Type...
 
* Not in a filled area on a layer being photoplotted, such as a shape or rectangle: Regular pad on positive artwork

=========================================================

* Inside a filled area on a layer being photoplotted and the pin shares the same net as the filled area:

A thermal relief pad created by positive artwork, or a  thermal relief pad drawn by positive artwork
 
==========================================================

* Inside a filled area on a layer being photoplotted, but the pin does not share the same net as the filled area:
 An anti-pad created by positive and negative artwork
 

 Aha, figured it out (thanks to the first tip). I did not realize I need to change the shape to "dynamic". Now I did and both thermals and antipads work fine for positive plane layers.