topic Re: Hiding vias in EAGLE Forum

Hiding vias

Anonymous — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 11:59:15 GMT

I have used a few vias on my 2 layer board , i don't want the vias to be visible i would like to have them covered, kindly advise on what do to.

Berita

Re: Hiding vias

jorge_garcia — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 21:13:31 GMT

Hello Berita,

I hope you're doing well. It sound like you want the vias covered by the soldermask (aka tenting). The easiest way to do this is to go into the DRC > Masks tab. You'll see that there is a parameter there called Limit and by default it is set to "0".

Here's how it works. All vias whose drill value is larger than the limit value are exposed copper. If a via has a drill smaller than the limit value then it will be covered by solder mask(tented). So the trick is to set the limit value to be slightly larger than the vias.

You can confirm that it worked by turning on the tstop and bstop layers. Any vias that have features drawn on these layers are exposed, if a via doesn't have something on tstop or bstop then it will be covered.

Please accept as solution if this solves your problem. Otherwise reply with more info.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

Re: Hiding vias

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 06:44:02 GMT

Thank you Jorge, it worked

Berita

Re: Hiding vias

qadriizhar — Sat, 19 Apr 2025 11:28:55 GMT

I tried resolution by Jorge, it worked in one pcb but not in others.
With trial and luck, I finally figured it out, how to perfectly tent vias in Fusion 360
The PCBs which were tenting properly were having the following settings:
Via > Properties > Solder Mask > Off
Those which had it Auto were not working despite Layer Stack settings.

Conclusion:
(1) In fusion 360 under RULES Menu
Select Layer Stack (Design Preferences)> Masks
Set as follows:
Solder Mask 0 100 2
Stencil 0 0 0
Limit 14.5mil

(2) Under RULES menu > Design Rules
Drill size = 13.78mil

(3) All the Vias which are to be masked must have the following settings:
Via > Properties > Solder Mask > Off
Drill Size < 14.5mil, default you have set to 13.78mil above in (2)

Cross check those vias which do not appear tented especially their drill size and Solder Mask

Re: Hiding vias

rambauxr — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 22:37:26 GMT

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