PCB Layout CAD : Various Convenient Functions

Stacking Vias

Interstitial vias can be stacked by placing at the same location while designing. Stacked vias can be worked with as if they are a single via, and you can place / move / delete multiple vias at the same time as well as avoid clearance violation errors among them.

Stacking Vias
Splitting Stack

Stacking Vias

Splitting Stack

To stack interstitial vias, you first need to enable the Allow Stack Via option in the Other DRC Settings.

The visibility of start and end layers displayed on placed vias can be toggled by the Via Label command in the Display menu.

Via labels are not shown for vias that go through all layers.

Stacking Vias

Interstitial vias are stacked when they are placed under the following conditions:

・Interstitial vias
・Assigned with the same net
・Located at the same coordinates
・Their start layer and end layer are matched. Ex)Via1: Top-L2 / Via2: L2-Bottom
・The Allow Stack Via option is enabled.

If the distance between stacked vias is greater than the value of the Allowable Misalignment setting, it can be detected by the DRC item, Stack Via.

Stacking Vias
The following explains how to stack interstitial vias during design.
(1) Place interstitial vias of which the start and end layers are matched.

Ex.)Left via  : Top to L2
      Right via: L2 to L4
(2) Move one of the vias onto another via.
The interstitial vias will be stacked.

Vias in a via stack cannot be selected or edited individually. To edit each via in the stack, use the Split Stack command to split it off from the stack.

After stacking vias, the layer numbers on the vias are merged and displayed with “- (hyphen)”.

Stacked Not Stacked

 

Splitting Stack

The Split Stack command allows you to split a selected via off from a via stack.

Splitting Stack
The following explains how to split a selected via off from a via stack.
(1) Select a via stack and then right-click to choose [Split Stack].

(2) Select a via you wish to split off and then click "OK".

(3) Click any location to place the split via.

Splitting a via stack will automatically generate routes to keep the connection between split vias. Routes will not be created if splitting a via stack while moving with the Move command.