"Hi Jon, In bottom layer, whether it is lack of soldermask pad? Pls check the attached picture. Thanks."
She keeps asking me these things and giving me pictures like
A Soldermask pad is a "pad" that is meant to mask out the solder mask(so it is "bare" copper or board)?
I included the gerber files with the solder masks for top and bottom so I'm not sure why she is asking these questions. All the vias are masked except for a few. (5 on bottom for a dip like header)
Gerber masks show exactly what I want. Is there any reason why she is asking these questions? Is it od why I am puting a solder mask over them them? I do not want to have any accidental/potential electrical connection with them, which is the reason I am having a mask on all vias except for a few test points I need. All the smt pads, of course, can't have solder resist.
For example, on my board I have, at the end, a 5 pin dip header used to connect to external prepherials. The bottom solder mask gerber only has pads for those 5 vias since I do not want solder resist on them(since I need to solder wires to them).
The top board is more complex because of all the smts but almost all the vias need resist. (hence no pads)
But as I understand what is going on, i.e., the solder mask layers is simply the places where resist will not be put. A "pad" or positive region on the solder mask layer means that no solder resist will be put on that spot. I have checked the solder resist layers and they are exactly what I want.