Working with the Power Plane Connect Style Design Rule on a PCB in Altium Designer

Rule category: Plane

Rule classification: Unary

Summary

This rule specifies the style of the connection from a component pin to a power plane.

Constraints

Default constraints for the Power Plane Connect Style rule.

• Connect Style – defines the style of the connection from a pin of a component, targeted by the scope (Full Query) of the rule, to a power plane. The following three styles are available:
  • Relief Connect – connect using a thermal relief connection.
  • Direct Connect – connect using solid copper to the pin.
  • No Connect – do not connect a component pin to the power plane.

The following constraints apply only when using the Relief Connect style:

• Conductors – the number of thermal relief copper connections (2 or 4).
• Conductor Width – how wide the thermal relief copper connections are.
• Air-Gap – the width of each air gap in the relief connection.
• Expansion – the radial width measured from the edge of the hole to the edge of the air gap.

How Duplicate Rule Contentions are Resolved

All rules are resolved by the priority setting. The system goes through the rules from highest to lowest priority and picks the first one whose scope expression matches the object(s) being checked.

Rule Application

During output generation.

Tips

1. Power planes are constructed in the negative in the PCB Editor, so a primitive placed on a power plane layer creates a void in the copper.