I've made a couple of simple PCBs as a hobbyist, and for the first time now I want to add a ground plane pour but I'm having some issues.
As I have currently understood I need to:
Create a polygon along the outline of my board with the polygon tool
Rename it to GND
Set a clearance
Turn on thermals for easier soldering
Click on ratsnest after manual/auto routing
The problem is that I'm getting empty spaces after doing an auto-route test and clicking ratsnest and the inner ground planes don't seem to be connected to the outer ones
hi
The "holes" or "islands" that you are seeing are due to the fact that there is no connection that can be made with your current clearance tolerances given the position of traces and pads.
If you move traces to allow the pour to exist between them, within the constraints of your clearance settings, the pour will fill the voids.
Sometimes you may not be able to create a connection in a given area, in which case you may need to stitch them together with vias. On many of my small 2-layer boards, I use a ground pour on both the top and bottom. Where an "island" would be created on the bottom, I use vias to connect it to the same ground potential on the top layer.
You can move traces, vias and components around to prevent most of these islands, but inevitably you will probably have to use additional GND vias to keep them from becoming isolated.
Hi
On many of my small 2-layer boards, I use a ground pour on both the top and bottom. Where an "island" would be created on the bottom, I use vias to connect it to the same ground potential on the top layer.
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