Electrical Design > ECAD > Using ECAD Areas > About Reserving Space Using ECAD Areas
About Reserving Space Using ECAD Areas
ECAD areas are 2D closed loop areas used for reserving space. Placement and user defined areas can have a height restriction as well. ECAD areas aid in design work by conveying specific restrictions or functions in the designated area. ECAD areas are created as cosmetic features on the board part.
Placement keep-in and keep-out areas and user defined areas can have a closed 3D volume, represented by a quilt. Use these quilts to perform a clearance and interference check to determine whether an ECAD component violates the restrictions for the keep-in, keep-out and user defined areas, even if the component is entirely within the keep-out volume.
Remember the following characteristics of keep-in and keep-out areas:
In the ECAD Areas tab, use the Name box in the Properties tab to name ECAD area features.
You can add parameters to the place restriction, and user defined area features such as board_side or routing_layers.
You can display place restriction and user defined areas as 3D volumes provided the value of their height is greater than 0.0. Redefine the feature attributes and select or clear the 3D Volume option.