Make adding a via easier
Brooks Solveig
Let's focus on the problem: it's difficult to add a via in Flux outside of routing.
The scenario I encountered was that I opened a project owned by the Flux org and noticed a couple issues. I took it upon myself to solve them. One issue was that an IC with a large, central GND pad wasn't connected to GND. I attempted to drop a via, since the GND fills behind it were free from obstacles. Right clicking on that pad caused the component to become selected and the Add menu was disabled. I locked the component and tried again - right click on the pad and the Layout became selected with Smart Via inside Add being disabled. I guess I can't add a via outside of a net – makes sense in theory, but in practice, it felt obvious what I was trying to do. The only things anywhere near my cursor were pads, vias, traces, and fills connected to GND. So I selected GND in the object list, right clicked there and successfully added a Smart Via. BUT because the via wasn't added in the center of my camera (a separate feature request filed for this) AND it wasn't selected after getting added (a feature currently being worked on now), I had no way of finding it. SO, finally, with the GND net selected in the object list, I right clicked on the canvas and BEHOLD, the via was created under my cursor in the correct net.
.........that was way too hard, and surely we can make that process easier. I could imagine other scenarios where this would be relevant, like you might want to stitch some fill islands or polygons and just want to drop a via without having to begin routing from somewhere. Or the mentality of just starting with a via and then connecting it to a trace or pad – we should allow for the creation of rogue smart vias and reorganize the via into the correct net in that case.
A
Andy Colborn
Totallly agree!
I spent a huge chuck of time just yesterday doing this. I needed to place a bunch of ground connected vias and after exhausting all the options I could think of, I added them in one at a time manually. Right click the ground net in the object tab, select add -> via, drag the via from the origin into place, repeat (x 90-100). See image below.
On the subject of an IC, I think the ideal solution would be a way to build the thermal vias directly into the component itself, potentially with a way to toggle connected layers. I tried this yesterday without success and ended doing what I described above at the project level. But this also means if the IC needs to move, I have to make sure to take the vias with it and if I ever need to use this part on a different project, I have to add the vias again or copy the whole thing from that project as a block.