yup yup yup, eagle makes it pretty easy - I do it all the time.
I just create a polygon that surrounds my entire board, name it gnd
(or what ever you use for ground) and select an isolate distance of 16
or 24 mils. Do one for the top and bottom and you now have defined a
"minimum etch" PCB. You could probably get away with less isolation
but I kind of like 24.
Note that you will get some areas that aren't pour'd because there is
no way to connect to ground. I would not recommend leaving large
areas unconnected due to capacitive coupling.
Note also that TT sometimes doesn't handle large areas of copper very
well. Pinholing or worse isn't uncommon at all. Not really a problem
other than appearance
Phil
--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "crankorgan" <john@k...> wrote:
>
> With the Eagle program you can FILL the ground plane around the
> traces. Hans told us how many messages back. I used this method on my
> Piker board. All ground points are the same large trace. Very little
> etching required. Done correctly there are no ground loops.
>
>
>
> --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "daveismissing"
> <shootme007@h...> wrote:
> >
> > Why isn't all this software done the other way 'round?
> > I really just want to define how much space I want between traces.
> > I want all the rest to be trace.
> > Less etchant, no erosion issues, easier for TT etc....
> > crazy?