Boolean Union

The Boolean Union command allows you to merge polygons in your circuit. There are two ways to execute this command:

• Select the polygons you wish to merge, then select Edit > Boolean Operations > Union from the main menu of the Project Editor.
• Select Edit > Boolean Operations > Union, then select the polygons you wish to merge. Once the desired polygons are selected, press the "Enter" key and the command is executed on the selected polygons.

In both cases, you may also click on the Bool drop-down list in the Edit toolbar and choose the Union command in place of selecting Edit > Boolean Operations > Union. If the selected polygons have the same properties, then the polygons are merged as shown in the example below.

Even though planar metal polygons are used throughout the examples in this topic, you may also merge via and dielectric brick polygons.

You may merge an unlimited number of polygons with one command, but the polygons must be in contact with each other for the Union command to have any effect. In the example pictured below, all four polygons have the same properties, but not all the polygons are touching. Therefore, the Union command results in two polygons. If all four polygons were touching, the union would have resulted in one polygon. If none of the selected polygons overlap, then the union is does not occur and a warning message is issued. Pictured below is an example of how a Union command is applied to polygons with mixed properties. In this case, all four polygons are in contact, but polygon 2 does not all have the same properties as polygons 1, 3, and 4. Therefore, the Union command leaves polygon 1 and 2 unchanged; they appear as polygons A and B in the right picture. Polygons 3 and 4 have the same properties and after the union appear as polygon C. A warning message is issued to let you know that not all polygons were merged.

The picture below shows another example. The three polygons in the original circuit on the left are merged into the single polygon shown on the right. The Reference Plane for Port 1 and the Dimension Parameter were removed since they were linked to a vertex that was eliminated by the Union command.