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i have finished my PCB design with Altium. I ran the DRC, to check if there are any errors. Strangely i got like hundreds of errors. First i couldn't find out why, but i managed to narrow it down to one footprint.

I have a footprint, i've designed it myself for a button which somehow throws multiple errors. First there are errors like:

Clearance Constraint: (Collision < 0.089mm) Between Pad SW6-1(9.381mm,102.69mm) on Multi-Layer And Pad SW6-3(7.381mm,100.936mm) on Multi-Layer

this would say the two pads on the footprint are colliding. But as you can see in the Picture they aren't. I've measured about 0.5mm between them.

But the error which is even more interesting is the following one:

Clearance Constraint: (0.01mm < 0.5mm) Between Pad SW2-0(9.413mm,288.69mm) on Multi-Layer And Polygon Region (186 hole(s)) Int1 (GND)

It says the clearance between the Polygon and the Pad is to small. I've measured the clearance and it is exactly 5mm. But somehow the DRC thinks it isn't. One interesting thing i noted is the two arrows wich show where the clearance is smaller than 0.5mm (Red circle in image). They measure not from the Polygon to the pad, they measure from the polygon to somewhere between the pad, which is evidently shorter than 5mm.

enter image description here

My only explanation is that the DRC thinks the Pad is bigger than it actually is.

Im really lost, i tried to edit the footprint, to edit the rules, nothing worked. It might be a small fault, but i really want to figure it out.

Does anyone have an idea why this error is caused?

EDIT: i asked Altium, they didn't figure it out... i just ordered the PCB with the errors. The Gerber seems to be fine.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Altium often leaves behind tiny slivers of track when you think it has been deleted; you would need to use single layer mode and zoom in closely to see if that is the problem. \$\endgroup\$
    – Peter Smith
    Apr 21, 2020 at 14:55
  • \$\begingroup\$ Check the pad sizes on the other layers? \$\endgroup\$
    – DerStrom8
    Apr 21, 2020 at 14:57
  • \$\begingroup\$ @PeterSmith can't find anything... and the Errormessage in the DRC would be Clearance "Polygon to Track" and not "polygon to Pad", woul'd it? \$\endgroup\$
    – Felix Kunz
    Apr 21, 2020 at 15:06
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    \$\begingroup\$ I'll state the obvious: Post this question on the Altium forum ( forum.live.altium.com ), along with the relevant bits of the project, and get a clearer answer, faster. \$\endgroup\$
    – Chris Knudsen
    Apr 21, 2020 at 15:40
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Andyaka I often go with Faultium when I'm composing over there. \$\endgroup\$
    – Chris Knudsen
    Apr 21, 2020 at 17:36

3 Answers 3

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I eventually ordered the Board with the Errors. Turned out fine. Altium Support wasn't able to help.

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I solved the problem whem I change clearance from "Any net" to Different net only". I got this problem when using a newer version of Altium to open a file saved from an older version.

enter image description here

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I suspect I have exactly the same problem and it turns it I had defined the slots incorrectly. Check that the you don't have a really big slot hole that is narrow as opposed to a small slot hole that is long.

Cheers

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