Help with nested parts?

[MrPink]

Hi, everyone!

Well...? I'm completely new to PCB design and PowerPCB and have been thrown in the designer chair with little more than Version 3.6, some incomplete documentation and some old designs to use as teeth-cutters.

So, I've gotten to work and have actually acheived some results! But something has come up that I can't seem to figure out, and I was hoping someone here might know.

I've run across an issue where I want to take an old design and update it with some parts and design changes. One of the things I want to do is allow for the use of several physically different but functionally equivalent parts in the same area of board real-estate. I can place and route the first incarnation of the part, but then PPCB won't let me put another part from the library in the same section of the board. If I place the second part (this is all in ECO mode), the first part will be moved and rerouted. Not what I want. If I glue the part down and then try to place the second part, I get an error message telling me that the new part conflicts with unmovable part XXX, and the placement fails.

What am I missing?

-Pink

[Tom]

You have your "Design Rules" & "Nudge" turned on.

Type the modeless command "DRO" (Design Rules Off) or select Setup/Preferences/Design/On-Line DRC/Off. While you are there select Nudge Off (upper right corner).

Most senior level designers do not use On-Line DRC or Nudge. They run Tools/Verify Design/Clearance as a post check because they are constantly breaking the DRC rules during the course of the PCB Layout and On-Line DRC does not allow you to do that.

Since you are new to PowerPCB, I highly recommend that you go to the pcbstandards.com Site Index/Instructions/System Basics. It's a Word document that describes the 10 basic functions of PowerPCB. Print it out in Color/Front to Back/On 3-Ring paper and put it in a binder.

[MrPink]

Yup.

It was nudge. I had drc off, but nudge was on.

Thanks for the help- I'll go and get that document, and no doubt will be back with more Q's as time goes on.

It's great to find a place like this- thank you!

-Pink