Rule Editor Dialog: Board Tab

The contents of the Board tab in the Rule Editor dialog are described below. This tab allows you to specify the design of a board, including the associated technology and layer configuration.

Design information

When creating a new design rule library, you can select a technology name and provide a board specification name. When editing an existing rule library, additional fields are shown.

Item	Description
Design rule	The name of the design rule. Set this value in the Design rule list section when creating a new design rule.
Technology	The technology associated with the design rule. This determines the layer configuration of the board, including the number of conductor layers. When creating a new design rule library, click to select a technology from the Technology library.
Board Specification	Allows you to provide a name which represents the characteristics of the board. This is an optional field.
Comment	Allows you to edit the comment that was associated with the design rule library when it was created (not shown when creating a new design rule library), and allows you to add a comment. This is an optional field.
Circuit	Shows the schematic file that is associated with the design, if applicable. (This field is not shown when creating a new design rule library).

Physical specification

Allows you to set the dimensions of the board, and specify whether core and build-up layers are configured.

Item		Description
Board size		Set the maximum X and Y dimensions of the board. The rules that are set on this tab apply to any board that uses the specified layer configuration, up to the specified size.
	X	Set the maximum X dimension of the board. This is a mandatory setting.
	Y	Set the maximum Y dimension of the board. This is a mandatory setting.
Board thickness		Automatically displays the total thickness of the board. This is the total of the values in the Layer thickness column, in the Layer Configuration table.
Use core layer		If selected, a build-up board can be created using core and build-up layers. The Build-up board configuration fields, in the Layer Configuration section, become active.

Layer configuration

Allows you to configure a build-up board, and set attributes for each layer.

Item	Description
Build-up board configuration (Number of build-up layer(s) adjacent to the core, Above - Core - Below)	Specify the number of conductor layers above and below the core layers in a build-up board. The number of core layers are adjusted automatically to accommodate the total number of layers in the board.
	Toggle the display of conductor layers in the Layer Configuration table.
	Toggle the display of dielectric layers in the Layer Configuration table.
	Toggle the display of non-conductor layers in the Layer Configuration table.
Layer Report	Displays the Layer Report dialog. This dialog displays details of the layers in your design.

Layer Attributes

Layer attributes are displayed in the Layer configuration table. These can be unique to each layer. Cells that are colored gray cannot be edited.

Attributes	Description
Layer	A read-only field that shows the name of the layer.
Layer thickness	Specify the physical thickness of the layer.
Material	Specify the material of the layer.
Resistivity [Ω*m]	Specify the resistivity of the layer.
Dielectric constant	Specify the dielectric constant (the ratio of the permittivity of a substance to the permittivity of free space).
Loss tangent	Specify the loss tangent value of the associated layer.
Layer Type	Specify the electrical attribute of a layer from the following options: (Undefined): the electrical attribute is not defined. Ground: denotes a ground layer. Power: denotes a power layer. Signal: denotes a signal layer.
Layer attribute	Displays the read-only attribute value for the Layer.
Powerplane net name	The net that is associated with the powerplane (not shown when creating a new design rule library).
Embedding	Above: specifies that the conductor is above the substrate material. Below: specifies that the conductor is below the substrate material.