What is Thieving?

[Anjali]

hi
Can neone explain to me what exactly is thieving.
How is it implemented in pcb design?

Anjali

[varora]

Thieving is a manufacturing process where copper pattern is added in the blank areas in the design to achieve proper etching and plating.

You don't have to do anything in the design but specify how far it should be from
any design features.

[JimR-OCDS]

One thing that would be nice in PADS is for them to create a program to automatically create and place auto-thieving.

Years ago in my days at Digital Equipment, we had a home-grown cad tool called VLS. They had an auto thieving feature.


Jim