New behavior: via stop mask limit is ignored with default properties

[pal.szabo]

Problem: after updating to 2601.0.90 x86_64 placing new vias in an existing design ignores the Limit setting in Design Preferences > Masks. All existing vias respect this setting, but all newly placed vias have the stop mask opened up. If the Limit setting's behavior is changed, it is not reflected in the help text below it.

Workaround (by @jorge_garcia😞
1) Select the vias you want to control stop mask for. This can be simplified by using the selection filter, having it set to only vias.
2) Once you've selected the vias you'll notice that in the Inspector you can adjust the stop mask setting for the entire group. Set soldermask to Off and the limit value then behaves just like it did before in EAGLE. I don't recommend this because you have vias with soldermask set to off yet they have soldermask, but that's how it used to work.

Details: all existing vias have their Solder Mask property set to Off. That was the default behavior before the update and it seems to follow the Limit setting. All newly placed vias have the Solder Mask property default set to Auto, which ignores the Limit setting.

Best regards,

Paul

[shaische222]

So annoying that after this update all vias are now exposed and this workaround has to be done. How about fixing this bug @jorge_garcia ?

[jorge_garcia · Accepted solution]

Hi @shaische222 ,

So this warrants some explanation. There is no bug, the code has actually not changed at all, only the defaults have changed. If you want things to work the way they did in EAGLE before, set soldermask to off for all of the vias and then adjust the limit for whatever threshold you want to use for tenting. This is the old way, if you like it that's all you have to do. The major flaw of that approach is that you don't have granular control for tenting individual vias, plus it's always been weird to have soldermask set to off but still have a soldermask.

The new use case is more powerful because you have complete control of what vias have solder mask. If you want soldermask have it set to Auto (set by default) if you don't then just turn it off. You can use selection filter and inspector to easily select the vias you want to control. In order for the vias to be in control by default Limit is set to 999 to effectively disable the limit function.

You can work however you prefer, the new paradigm gives much more control if you are willing to just adjust to it. If you don't want to bother with it just make the 2 changes in the first paragraph.

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

Best Regards,

[pal.szabo]

Hi @jorge_garcia,

I didn't mean it was a bug, it seemed (unfortunately) deliberate, it was just an undocumented change of default behavior.

Let me also react on your thought "it's always been weird to have soldermask set to off but still have a soldermask". I fully agree, but I believe the current options are at least as misleading: "Auto", which actually means always on (ignoring Limit) and "Off" (which respects Limit), and not having an actual per-via Off option.

I would suggest introducing a new option "On", which is soldermask for that specific via. "Auto" should respect the Limit and "Off" should be soldermask off, regardless of the Limit. The default should be "Auto", which respects the higher-level catch-all "Limit" setting, in harmony with the new rules concept.

The "Offset" option is a really cool concept, and it would be even more powerful, if the CHANGE command would support it. Then it would really be easy to control via tenting individually without smart selecting (potential feature request?)

Best regards,

Paul

[jorge_garcia]

Hello @pal.szabo ,

Just need clarification on when you said "not having an actual per-via Off option" . That's what the soldermask setting is supposed to control, you can select a single via and set it to Off or Auto or whatever. Are you referring to something else?

I agree with everything you wrote. I'll create tickets for improving the soldermask options and to have the Change command support the new soldermask options. These both will require code changes, more work, so might take more time to implement.

Thank you for your feedback.

Best Regards,

[pal.szabo]

Hi @jorge_garcia,

Sorry, I was sloppy in my suggestion. Yes, I was referring to the per-via properties window->Soldermask drop-down, which - in my opinion - should have the options "On" (using global via soldermask size), "Auto" (i.e. global 'Limit' setting), "Off" and "Offset".

Thank you for your help!

Best regards,

Paul

[marja_hoch5HJCM]

Hi,
I just started to write a support request when finding you already encountered the same issue.
Good to hear that there is this manual bug fix, because I need to deal with plugged vias, especially with plugged vias in pad and it would be annoying to manually remove the stop mask for all vias in Gerber files for production.

Thanks for your hint & best regards,

Marja

[motla.design]

+1 on this !

Having independent control on solder mask for vias is a good addition but for now it has a really bad and misleading UX design. It's easy to fix, common guys... 🙂

@jorge_garcia