Altium: rule for detecting old unconnected copper?

[tinkerer_guy]

Hi,

I have a rather complex board that went through lots of modifications by more than one person. as a result, it has a few "left-over" tracks and vias that are not connected to anything, and therefore have the net set to "No-Net". I want a rule that detects those. Is there a built-in one? if not, can you suggest a new one?

I was thinking something like a query for "in signal layer", "isTrack" or "isVia", and net is "No-Net" (will need to find the exact syntax). I'm not sure however what type of rule to create...? I just want to detect objects that match that query and mark them as violations.

thanks,
Guy.

 

[andre_luis]

What if you change the name of all nets identified as "no-net" to some other name, and then highlight this primitive to detect them visually ? Just a guess...

 

[tinkerer_guy]

I can actually do OK with manually searching for them and removing them - I use "find similar objects" with relevant properties (no-net, track type, etc). however, I was looking for a rule to identify them so the DRC covers such errors.

 

[andre_luis]

I was looking for a rule to identify them so the DRC covers such errors.

I never used that, but are you aware of the Query Builder feature ?

 

[tinkerer_guy]

Yes, I have actually just built a query that catches the no-net copper, similar to what I figured above. however, I want now to apply it as a rule, and I don't know how to do that. which type of rule to create? it's obviously not a clearance rule, not a component placement rule, and so on. I don't know what type of rule is relevant here.

 

[andre_luis]

According to the original description "rule for detecting old unconnected copper" in my particular opinion, just detecting no-net signals should suffice, but I'm perhaps not seeing the whole aspects of the problem from your perspective.

 

[tinkerer_guy]

I do want to detect no-net signals - specifically, tracks and vias which are no-net (no-net pads are something that occasionally happens and not a problem for me). However, I want to do that as part of the Design Rule Check (DRC) and not by manually running queries. I think the basic idea of a DRC is a one-click testing of the layout. Many aspects of it could have been run as manual queries, but that would kind of defeat the purpose of automatic checks, in my opinion.

so, anyone knows how can this be incorporated to a Design Rule?

thanks!

 

[andre_luis]

What about create an online clearance DRC rule for no-net signals - greater than the greatest dimension of the board ? This way ALL no-net nets will be detected. I'm unsure if it works but sometimes we have to do the things in a tricky manner.