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Design Spark Copy and Move

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I am having problems when trying to copy and move tracks, and then changing the net its on. No hassle on selecting tracks, copying, and then moving the newly minted net, with tracks, and plop it on some pads that are on a different net. The change net of the newly placed tracks actually does just fine. The hiccup in my mind is when you want to view/highlight net. The tracks just don't highlight unless you start over from scratch and start drawing from one of new net pads....ughhhhh. I am pretty sure the copper tracks would be no problem. Maybe it's because this is a pcb drawing only, no schematic.

Any tips or work around???
 
I am having problems when trying to copy and move tracks, and then changing the net its on. No hassle on selecting tracks, copying, and then moving the newly minted net, with tracks, and plop it on some pads that are on a different net. The change net of the newly placed tracks actually does just fine. The hiccup in my mind is when you want to view/highlight net. The tracks just don't highlight unless you start over from scratch and start drawing from one of new net pads....ughhhhh. I am pretty sure the copper tracks would be no problem. Maybe it's because this is a pcb drawing only, no schematic.

Any tips or work around???

There's no problem with the highlight net function
that I know of. Be sure the tracks and pads have the
The same net assigned...
 
Yes the pads and tracks have the same net. The same problem was mentioned on the DesignSpark forum, I am not sure if it got resolved satisfactorily. I tried one forum members solution, but it didn't help. This is probably just me being a newb, and not performing the copy and paste in a particular order, or under the right command sequence. I hate to think that there is a problem with the pads accepting tracks that don't start life from the original net.
 
Negative on merging nets dialog.

Although I can say for certain that has gotten me in trouble in the past. If you feel like it try opening a new pcb file. Paste in say four components in an equal spaced array. Draw a track between two component pads. You now have pads and track net called N0000. Click on two symmetrically identical pads from two other components and add them to the N0000 net. Use Ctrl-C to copy, and Ctrl-V to paste the track onto the two other component pads in the array. The newly minted copy is now named N00001. Change that net to N0000. Highlight net N0000 shows all pads and the original track with blue (default I think). The copied track does not highlight for me.

If this works for you, then my XP sp3, or old notebook is not up to the task. Or, I need to learn the proper procedure, it takes a while to wade through these CAD style programs. Thanks for the interest.
 
OK...I tried your scenario.

Your right...I won't merge the track with the net...even though the tracks and the pads have the same net assigned.
Further, if you perform a DRC it flags the copied track as "dangling".

This has got to be a bug in the software...

I haven't run into this before because I don't copy tracks...

I don't know a work around for this one...
 
Well good to know I'm not crazy. Thank you for confirming and following along. Overall, I am pretty happy with the DesignSpark program. I like the component editor wizard.

The reason this came up is, I am working on board with 20 identical sot89 packages. So you can see when you complete a complicated track between pads, you would like to just copy it over, or flip it onto the next package:(. I am also using some copper tracks just for heat spreaders, lots of D-T 's (dangling tracks) from the drc! I have a hunch if I change those tracks to a copper pour, that problem would go away.
 
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Well good to know I'm not crazy. Thank you for confirming and following along. Overall, I am pretty happy with the DesignSpark program. I like the component editor wizard.

The reason this came up is, I am working on board with 20 identical sot89 packages. So you can see when you complete a complicated track between pads, you would like to just copy it over, or flip it onto the next package:(. I am also using some copper tracks just for heat spreaders, lots of D-T 's (dangling tracks) from the drc! I have a hunch if I change those tracks to a copper pour, that problem would go away.

It's easy to understand why you need to copy tracks.

Hopefully, they'll get this fixed in the next release.
Has this been reported to RS as a bug?

DSPCB 3 is a great tool, but it's immaturity shows.
 
Well good to know I'm not crazy. Thank you for confirming and following along. Overall, I am pretty happy with the DesignSpark program. I like the component editor wizard.

The reason this came up is, I am working on board with 20 identical sot89 packages. So you can see when you complete a complicated track between pads, you would like to just copy it over, or flip it onto the next package:(. I am also using some copper tracks just for heat spreaders, lots of D-T 's (dangling tracks) from the drc! I have a hunch if I change those tracks to a copper pour, that problem would go away.

It's easy to understand why you need to copy tracks.

Hopefully, they'll get this fixed in the next release.
Has this been reported to RS as a bug?

DSPCB 3 is a great tool, but it's immaturity shows.
 
Response from DesignSparkPCB

Hi nickelflippr, I have also gone through the copy-track exercise you posted above. Please note that when you copy a track and drop it over other pins it does not automatically connect this track to those pins. As soon as the track’s net is renamed to N0000 it indeed becomes a part of this net but it is also highlighted as not connected which overwrites the new highlight. Try the following:

Copy the N0000 track, paste just above the pins of the other 2 devices. double click at the pin on the left side and connect to the pasted track. Repeat for the pin on the right side. Then grab the track and drag it down to align with the pins. Now change the net to N0000 and if that net was highlighted then your new connection will be highlighted too.

The bottom line is that copying the tracks in the way you describe is rather unusual, although I can see your point and it would be indeed nice if the track dropped on pins would automatically connect to those pins. I am not sure how this would affect other functions but I will look into this. What I suggest instead of copying tracks is to connect couple of devices with full tracking between them, then copy the entire block and paste it as many times as you require. Sure the net names will be auto-renamed but the connections will be preserved. This is how I would do it if I was designing such PCB.

You mentioned this issue was posted on DesignSpark forums, would you be able to tell me the link for this post? I would like to follow up on that, perhaps this is something more users would like to see improvements on.

Best Regards,

Mike
 
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@DesignSparkPCB
The work around using the copy, move, offset, hookup pad technique worked, thank you. The board design was space constrained with as many packages as could fit. So, moving whole components around would be kind of the cart before the horse. I will keep that idea though moving forward.

For the life of me, I can't duplicate the search that will pick up that similar DesignSpark post again.

Thanks again.
 
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