FEDEVEL
Platform forum

Valderas , 09-22-2020, 08:17 PM

Hi again.

I'm doing the 28pins project's course and when I'm doing the PCB layout and I'm setting the rules, inside the SolderMaskExpansion in Altium20 you have the option to check or uncheck the 'tented' option. With the version of Altium that Robert does the course doesn´t appear that option inside the SolderMaskExpansion rules. So, the question is, do I have to check or uncheck the 'tented' option?

I suppose that I have to check the option but I'm not 100% sure, so I decided to put the question here in the forum.

Thank you in advance.

qdrives , 09-25-2020, 12:46 PM

The standard solder mask expansion is 0.05...0.1mm (tented is NOT checked). It depends on the fabricator. Some even allow smaller values.

robertferanec , 09-26-2020, 12:15 AM

Tented means, it will cover that object (e.g. via, pad, ...) with mask (e.g. it will be covered with the green color of your PCB). Normally for pads you would like them to be untented (unmasked) and for vias I normally use tented (I normally mask vias).

PS: If you check tented, the expansion value will be ignored.

Valderas , 09-26-2020, 09:15 AM

Ok, I understand
Thank you both of you.

robertferanec , 09-28-2020, 06:25 AM

- yes, I needed that feature before. I like that too.