Theme: Signal polygons, ground planes (V19+)
How can I embed a pad completely to the ground plane without a heat sink?
If you create a new ground plane, the check mark is automatically set for the action "Adjust auras". If no heat sinks shall be created ("Create thermal pads" unticked), then all pads within the signal polygon on this layer have no aura and will be connected in full, which means completely embedded:
(Figure 1: Embed all soldering pads entirely to the ground plane).
If you later do changes to your ground planes, the box "Adjust auras" will not be ticked. This is because TARGET does not want to ruin any changes you laboriously may have made by hand (some pads completely embedded, others with a heat sink...).
So you can set the aura to zero for an SMD pad if it shall be embedded, but for a THT solder pad you should rather use the entry "No aura for these layers:" in the "Change Pads" dialog. The reason is that such a pad might be surrounded by a signal area on other layers (e.g. GND and VCC):
(Figure 2: Preventing aura and heat sink)
