Trying to replicate a circuit from pcb onto perfboard and noticed that one of the traces leads to absolutely nothing, in this case an empty hole for a ground cable. since im doing this on perf im trying to save as much room as i can so will it be ok if i left out the trace that leads to the empty ground on the pcb on my copied circuit?

 

Yes!
(***************)

 

hmm, looks like ill have to go back and rearrange some things in my build. whats the purpose for not having it connect to anything, it doesn't look like anything branches out from the trace itself until it gets to its empty cable terminal?

 

They could have made the trace for expansion later, or possibly another revision needed an extra component. Its always better to plan for expansion then have to just scrap x ammount of boards. So if you know you will be using 1 of 2 ic's and one of them needs an extra resistor or what ever. You would go ahead and run all the boards with a trace to the resistor then if you need it populate it.

 

Are you sure it doesn't lead through a via? or used as an antenna?

 

heres a photo of the trace side of the circuit. as you can see along the top row is the cable terminals on the pcb, and note the one in particular labeld 'GRND' that is vacant. as you can see(excuse the black pcb) the trace leads back to nothing as it elbows its away around the other traces until it gets to the point where that diode is connected(on the other side of the diode is a electro capacitor). does it really matter if i leave that trace out of my perboard build or does it look like its serving a purpose of some sort. the application in question is a guitar pedal by the way. im gonna assume the answer is yes but figured id post these pictures anyway just to be totally sure before i rearrange things

 

Nice pics!

Not easy to take good close-up pics of a circuit, but you did a very nice job.

OK, now back to your question.

Sometimes, designers will leave a "ground trace" to isolate signals from one another. If the ground trace is not present, it can lead to interference with adjacent signals.

If you're certain that the trace is not necessary, than you can eliminate it.

However, it was likely put in there for a reason.

How old is this pedal, anyway?