PCB Ground Fill Stitching Issues
Thought
I did not change anything.
The main reason you are not seeing ground-fill stitching is that “Connected Layers” only tells an existing via/pad/fill which copper layers it may connect to; it does not automatically create GND stitching vias or guarantee that every layer has a GND copper fill. Your layout is a 6-layer signal stackup, and the design currently shows only a small number of fill/zone objects while DRC still reports many airwires, including GND and PGND, so the ground copper is not fully acting as a stitched, resolved plane system.
Open items:
- GND and PGND appear as separate/unresolved ground-related nets in the airwire report.
- The board has only a few fill/zone objects, so the intended Top / Mid-Layer 1 / Mid-Layer 4 / Bottom ground planes may not all exist or may not all be assigned to the correct ground net.
- Existing vias may be connected across layers, but that does not mean they are placed as a stitching pattern or tied into filled GND copper.
Suggested next steps:
- Verify each intended plane/fill is assigned to GND and exists on Top, Mid-Layer 1, Mid-Layer 4, and Bottom.
- Decide whether PGND should be tied to GND or kept separate with a controlled single-point connection.
- Add/enable actual GND stitching vias after the fills are confirmed.
- Re-run airwire/floating-copper checks to confirm GND is fully connected.
Verify plane assignments
Fix ground stitching
Check GND PGND
Run focused DRC
Create repair plan
