Padstacks and Vias

Padstacks describe the stacking structure of shapes associated with pads and vias. They enable different shapes on different layers. You can easily create and edit padstacks across all board types. Changes to the saved format and functionality are minimal, since the padstacks are independent of the number of layers in the design.

Padstacks consist of:

• Drill information
• Plane layer information – used for calculating the heat and iso shapes used on plane layers.
• Inner layer information – used for assigning different shapes for used/unused component pads.

Vias consist of a hole cut in the PCB to route a trace vertically from one layer to another, as well as the vertical pieces of conductor that make connections between layers. If a via is too big, it does not have sufficient room to route signal traces. If vias are made smaller, more traces can be drawn.

Consult the following topics:

• Configuring Padstacks
• Adding and Deleting Padstacks
• Converting Padstacks to Planes
• Drawing Vias
• Editing Via Properties
• Translucent Via Rendering