PADS pad stack help needed

[Bruce N]

Hello All, new here, looking for some PADS help.

I'm a longtime Altium user, recently hired into a company using both Altium and PADS. Mostly a learn as I go thing for PADS. I've been rebuilding the library for this company, it's had too many hands messing around and things are broke. As standard practice, on the pad stack I add a solder mask and a paste mask definition on those layers. Most of the parts in this library do not have that. I guess you can do it when you run gerber, but I like to see it on the board as I design. The problem I'm having is when I add a part on the top side of the board, the solder mask for that part is only visible as bottom mask. On parts added to the bottom, the mask is only visible as top mask. This is happening on existing layouts. When I create a new layout from scratch, everything seems to work OK. Any suggestions on how to correct this?

Thanks,

Bruce N

 

[barry]

I ran into this problem too, and I spent hours trying to figure it out. If my memory is right:

Make sure you define the solder mask for the top layer. Then when you place a component on the bottom, the solder mask "follows". In other words, even though you've defined a component with solder mask on the top layer if you flip that component to the bottom, the solder mask moves to the bottom solder mask layer. At least, I think that's what happened.

Barry

 

[Bruce N]

Hi Barry- Thanks for the reply. I'm pretty sure it's defined properly. I opened a new schematic, placed a few parts, ran the eco into a new layout and it works like it should. Solder mask is with the top layer and when I hit Flip Side, the solder mask "follows" to the bottom side. But on the production board I'm working on it is backwards. Not all the parts on this board are from my library. Some are from the original library and I don't know if they are built correctly. Maybe one of those parts is throwing things off?

Thanks,

Bruce N.

 

[barry]

I don't know, maybe check the layer settings in CAM, i.e., for the Top Solder Mask layer make sure it's actually using the proper layers. I had a lot of problems with solder mask, and in one case I actually had to create a special 'component' that was nothing more than a solder mask layer. This was for an odd-shaped mask, though.

There's also a Yahoo Pads users group you can look at(**broken link removed**), and Mentor (don't get me started about them) also has a users group (**broken link removed**) you can use for free (you don't have to be on maintenance).

 

[Bruce N]

No luck yet figuring this out. I've posted on the other forums, so hopefully we'll get it.

Thanks.

 

[gometric]

Let me see if I've got this right: ALL the components placed on top layer show soldermask bottom instead of soldermask top? Is this happening at the database level or at the cam/gerbers level?

 

[AG]

Hi All

Check layer setup association.

 

[Bruce N]

Let me see if I've got this right: ALL the components placed on top layer show soldermask bottom instead of soldermask top? Is this happening at the database level or at the cam/gerbers level?

Yup, the new parts I have built are placed on the top side. The mask for these parts is showing on the bottom. If I flip the part to the bottom, the mask flips to the top. This is at the database level. I haven't tried to run gerbers, but I think I could probably adjust the layers there to fix it.

Thanks,

Bruce

---------- Post added at 08:27 ---------- Previous post was at 08:26 ----------

Hi All

Check layer setup association.

Yup, I checked the layer setup association. Looks to be OK.

Thanks,

Bruce

 

[gometric]

Could you send me a file? Like an empty database with a couple of different footprints from all the libraries? I'll send you a private message with my email address.