Eagle PCB help with ground plane

[Mr RB]

Hi, I've been working on a Eagle PCB layout that has special ground plane requirements and something has me stumped.

I know how to do an isolated gorund plane, and how to name it as one of the nets (ie Gnd) so it connects to that net and not the others, all basic stuff.

But this PCB needs a star ground on a complex area that has a LOT of component pins and other tracks that are also connected to ground. So if I connect the polygon to Gnd it connects to about 20 things, and I lose the star ground. But if I keep the polygon isolated it preserves all the star ground tracks but the ground plane itself won't connect to the star ground.

In past designs i've used a trick of manually connecting it to the star with a "wire" but of course this is clumsy as the moment the polygon is moved or the isolates are re-calculated the polygon then isolates itself from that manual wire.

Does anyone know the proper way to do this star ground/ground plane thing?

 

[DirtyLude]

Create Polygons on the tRestrict layer to surround your star where you don't want the copper pour to go. Obviously if it's the bottom, use the bRestrict.

 

[Mr RB]

Bingo! Thanks, that's a good workable solution and a really quick reply too!

I'll have to use "wires" on the bRestrict layer as there are quite a few ground tracks there used for current sensing in the ground loop thare are right next to the ground plane but can't touch it.