After extracting a netlist or running netlist compare in the Streams have you seen this before?
The orange target shape on thae via is an undefined padstack indicator. It will appear any time CAM350 does not find a pad on the top and/or bottom layer that lines up exactly with the drill data. The color is determined by the flash color of the active layer.
The intent of this was to warn users that there are drills that either do not line up with or are missing a pad. This can cause numerous problems. Also CAM350 must create a padstack for the drill in order to have it short the layers together.
Causes and Solutions
Cause 1: Different units from source CAD data
Some Cad programs allow Gerber and Drill data to use different unit sets. For example, a Gerber file could have 5 decimals and a drill only 3 decimals. Any drill that does not fall on a 1 mill grid would end up offset by less than a mil from the pad.
If you set SETTINGS UNITS to 1/10000 you can see if this is the case by using INFO | QUERY | ALL. You can also see Units settings in the Auto-import codes if you select NEXT rather than FINISH.
Best solution for such problems is to go back to the CAD system and re-export your data to avoid this loss of precision.
The other option would be to use EDIT | LAYERS | SNAP DRILL TO PAD. This will let you specify a layer (like the top layer) and a drill layer. CAM350 will then snap all the drills so they center on the nearest pad within the tolerance. The 2 mil tolerance is recommended as it uses a diameter around the pad center, not a radius. This is only good for small offsets. For larger offsets see the next cause.
Cause 2: Misplaced Drills
Layer misalignment occurs when the drill and Gerber data were exported from CAD using a different origin. The results are large offsets of entire layers. To fix, align layers or get new exports from the Cad system that are already aligned. See the tech tip on our web site for more info.
In some cases you might just see a drill that is obviously in the wrong spot. While other features like netlist compare would catch such an error if it resulted in an open or a short, it is nice to have a quick way of seeing a problem.
To fix such a problem one would need to determine why the error occurred. Contact support@downstreamtech.com if you need help with that.
Cause 3: No Pads
Of course in some types of CAM work the user may not have PADS with their drill data at all. Designers using DXF and flex circuit might fall into this area. In such a case you probably want to modify the display of the undefined padstacks so they are less distracting.
Modifying the Display of Undefined Padstacks
Unfortunately there is no option to just turn this feature off at this time (CAM350 10.7). You could explode your net to get rid of them, but that is no help if you want a net. The only option at this time is to reduce the size of the displayed undefined padstack
Locate your camnt95.ini file. The location of this file varies.
Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\xx\Application Data\DownStream Technologies\CAM350 ver
Windows 7:
c:\users\xx\AppData\Roaming\DownStream Technologies\CAM350 ver
Vista:
c:\Desktop\xx\AppData\Roaming\DownStream Technologies\CAM350 ver
Windows 2000:
C:\Documents and Settings\xx\Application Data\DownStream Technologies\CAM350 ver
In the above, xx is your user name and ver is the version of CAM350.
In the above, xx is your user name and ver is the version of CAM350.
Note that Application Data and AppData are often hidden folders. To show select TOOLS | FOLDER OPTIONS and adjust as needed to display these folders.
Open your camnt95.ini file in notepad. Add the following line to your [Preferences] section at the end
DisplayPinSize=5
This will make the undefined padstack designators only display as a 5 mil target. You can go as low as 1 if you like. Default is 50, which is used if there is no DisplayPinSize line in the file.