Sprint-Layout
Table of Contents
Adjust Workspace Size and Ground Planes
Sprint adds ground planes by default, and does so in a way that can cause conflict with our process.
To correct this, move the PCB design in your tool so the lower-left corner of
your outline is at 0,0, and then adjust the design workspace size to match
the dimensions of the board.
Failure to do this can result in possible fabrication issues. This is because Sprint adds ground plane polygons extending beyond your board edge. These get clipped by our system, and sometimes with unpredictable results.
Note, that simply “removing” the ground plane with a subtractive polygon will not work. Sprint will actually add more ground plane polygons, increasing the chance of something going wrong.
Pilot Holes
Make sure you turn off the “Pilot Holes” or “Pad Via Holes” option, since that will make the board unusable.
We use the presence of copper underneath drill hits to determine plating. The “Pilot Holes” options will remove copper beneath drill hits, resulting in all holes on your board being non-plated.
File Names
We reccomend leaving the filenames alone, as we’ll indentify the files correctly in almost all cases.
If there is an error, or a file is missing, you may try renaming the files as listed on our Naming Pattern page.
When doing this, note that that the smdmask and soldermask files are not equivalent.
soldermaskfiles represent areas on your PCB to expose, allowing you to apply solder. These are the files we use for fabrication.smdmaskrepresents a solder paste layer, often used for fabricating pcb stencils. We do not currently use these files, and they can be deleted or renamed.
Most notably, mixing up these files would result in not being able to solder through-hole parts, as they’ll be covered by purple epoxy.
