Tests in EDWinXP

The test connectivity tool may be used to check whether there is any electrical discontinuity (unconnected nodes or deleted trace segments) in any of the nets. The test can be performed on a single net selected, on all nets or on selected nets alone. It can be specified whether to stop the test and display the results when the first discontinuity is encountered or to continue the test for all nets even if discontinuities are encountered and display the entire results at the end.

Ensures that project integrity has not been corrupted. In rare cases the internal cross references between objects in the project (database) may get corrupted. It may cause malfunctions of the system. This function performs test of internal cross-references. If some references point to missing objects then the referencing object is deleted from the project (database). In most cases the objects containing references to missing object cannot be deleted any other way because they are invisible on the screen. It is useful to execute this function from time to time to ensure that project (database) integrity has not been corrupted.

Location of pads and traces inside of copper pour areas and overlapping of their air gaps may cause creation of isolated islands of copper. These islands may be totally cut off from the rest of copper pour or if eventual passages leading there are left too narrow then copper in these parts be etched away in the manufacturing process. This may render some pads intended for connection by copper pour, actually disconnected from other pads in the net. It is impossible for standard connectivity check in Layout Editor to find out isolated spots and bottlenecks. Sometimes parts isolated on one layer may be interconnected if they contain plated through holes (via holes or PMD pads) linked to traces or copper pour areas on other layers. In such a case, there is no need to report such instances as errors. The purpose of newly improved copper pour connectivity check is to test artworks for all above-mentioned eventualities.

This check finds out isolated pockets of copper and detects pads that were cut off. It is needed in Editor for previewing how result of component placement and routing within copper pour will look on artworks. Additionally, it provides a way to present air gaps graphically. In another words, flood test has generally the same purpose as in Fabrication Manager and works in somewhat similar way.

BBT which stands for Bare Board Test is like quality check usually done by the fabricator to check the open & short circuits in and between the tracks. A supply of 50 volts is passed through the tracks and this job is done by automated machines. A probe sort of thing is inserted through the pads so as to probe. A netlist is generated from the gerber (it is not generated from the design) so that to cross check the actual physical PCB manufactured with respect to actual gerber in order to find out the fabrication errors. The one of the testing in BBT is point to point testing. Earlier there were machines, which used to check from pad to pad now there are machines which can check from pad to track.