VIAS and PADS ?

[cerrem]

Hi... I am new to forum....
Glad to have found this place...
I have experience with Allegro and now like ALtium much better after trying it out....
OK... I am not 100% sure I understand when I should use Pads vs. Vias in this software...
I have a 4 layer board... Inner Layer 2 is +12V plane and Inner Layer 3 is -12V plane.....
I use Top layer (METAL 1) and Bottom layer for routing...RED and BLUE respectively...
WHen I switch from Top to Bottom Layers a VIA is placed in the routing that jumps through the entire board....
this is what I refer to as a full stack VIA...
I am using a PAD to go from TOP LAYER metal 1 to the Layer 2 for my +12V ...
I am also using a PAD to go from TOP LAYER metal 1 to LAYER 3 for my -12V....
Under PAD PROPERTIES I am setting it as "MULTILAYER" and setting the NET to the +12V or -12V ...
I also keep it set to a SIMPLE pad....
Then I am placing the pad on the top layer and running the top layer RED trace to it.....
Is this the proper use of PAD to get connection the TOP LAYER to the +12V and -12V layers??
My gut feeling says no.....
So..is this PAD also acting as a VIA to the inner planes???
Or should I be using a VIA ??
I see in the PROPERTIES section of VIA that it has a START LAYER and a END LAYER ......
I can set the START LAYER as TOP LAYER and then set the END LAYER as INTERNAL PLANE 2 or INTERNAL PLANE 3 ......
Is the VIA the correct way to do this??? or can a PAD act the same way??
I use to call this VIA a blind VIA .....
Any clarification would be greatly appreciated...
Thanks...

Chris

[free_electron]

A pad is a hole in the board where you stick a component pin through or solder a component pin on ( SMt pad )
a thru-hole pad should always be used as such.

a VIA is a connection between layers. if you double click on a via you can set begin layer and end layer and do exactly what you are after: make blind via's and buried via's.

normally a board should not have free pads ( all pads should belong to a component )

the reason they let you place pads in pcb mode is so you can tweak a part then select the pads and the part go to the library and plonk it down there.

there is even a tool to convert 'free pads' to via ( and vice versa )