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I created a polygon that I intend to use as a heatsink. The problem is that there is a lot of clearance at the edge of the board, much more than around traces even, why is that? How can I set board clearance independent of isolation setting of the polygon?

enter image description here

Nick Alexeev
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DominicM
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1 Answers1

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Like many settings in Eagle, the setting is there, but it's not in an obvious place where you would look for it. The copper to board edge clearance is burred in the DRC rules.

  1. Select menu Tools -> Drc... The DRC dialog will open.
  2. Go to Distance tab.
  3. Change the field Copper/Dimension to the desired width.
    (Be sure to consult the edge clearance specifications set forth by the PCB fab.)
  4. Click Apply then close the DRC dialog.
  5. Click rat's nest to repour the polygon pours.

Eagle DRC dialog. Distance tab. Annotated screenshot.

enter image description here

(These screeshots were taken with Eagle 6.3.0.)

Nick Alexeev
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  • That's it! Really bad design from Eagle though, time to give Kicad another go :) – DominicM Aug 30 '16 at 20:20
  • Eagle is a very German affair. Everything is there, and it's solidly built. But its ergonomics is not designed for the users. – Nick Alexeev Aug 30 '16 at 20:23
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    More like Chinese affair, cheap and buggy. It's one of the more buggy pieces of software I have ever used not to mention outdated, clunky and ridiculously badly designed.Maybe it was solidly built in 2001 but it hasn't changed much since then. The only reason it's not total junk, is because competition is not that much better... – DominicM Aug 30 '16 at 21:08
  • I'm yet to come across serious bugs in Eagle. To be clear, I'm talking about "plumbing" defects, not about usability issues and slow adoption of certain important features. So, I can't agree with you that Eagle is outright buggy. – Nick Alexeev Aug 30 '16 at 21:19
  • Well, I only encountered a couple of serious bugs so maybe I can't say it's buggy but one might argue that usability this bad is equivalent to a bugs. It's clearly been designed for a different era and then things were lumped to it as the time passed to create this monstrosity. It just needs to be redeveloped from scratch. – DominicM Aug 30 '16 at 21:28