First I apoligize if this isn't the correct catagory I should be asking this type of question it was the closest I saw off the bat. Anyway I am just about to etch another board and thought I could save some time and checmicals if I put a big back plane on the entire board. Up until now I've only etched very small boards and wasn't much overhead to etch off most of the copper. I'm about to etch a much larger board from my previous projects. Allot of boards I've seen I see big back planes on there that don't seem to connect to anything so is this standard practice? Should a back plane be kept away from certain components such as input from my AC power source before it passes through my rectifier circuitry? Can/should the back plane encompass the entire circuit and is it ok letting it float or should they always be tied to ground?
Thanks for your assistance and expertise.
David