Spacing

Spacing (space) is the empty distance between two shapes that must not touch or sit too close.

Two wires that kiss become a short after print and etch. Two implants that creep together leak. A board trace too close to another trace fails the shop’s chart. A minimum space might be 0.14 micrometer on chip metal or 0.15 millimeter on a two-layer board. On the drawing the gap shows as two parallel bars with a dimension in the alley. A marker appears if a corner cuts the alley. Acute corners and all-angle edges need a true distance, not a lazy Δx.

The white band between the two straps is the gap, measured from edge to edge.

Spacing is the partner of width. Enclosure is how much one shape surrounds another, which is not a space. Same-net spacing is sometimes relaxed. Different-net spacing is not. A design-rule deck writes those cases down. Measuring from centerline to centerline on two path objects understates the danger. The legal space is edge to edge.

Fatness, the gap, and the surround are covered in width and space, design rules and DRC, and enclosure.