Looking for input into the following dilemma that we are facing.
I have a pwb with several areas that need to have solder mask and several areas that do not need solder mask. This is easy.
Here's the problem, I want to place a 0.006" piece of solder mask around each pad in the area that does not need solder mask.
This is needed because some of the pads are flooded over with ground plane and we use the solder mask as a way to stop the part from floating to one side.
We have placed a note on our fabrication drawing and placed notes on the solder mask gerber trying to explain this.
Some board houses got and some just didn't.
We would like to incorporate this into the PADS file so there would be no confusion at the board fabricator.
We have experiment with copper on the Solder Mask layer and works for a simple opening but not too well when there are a lot of components and via's.
See attachment for clarification.