Ross La Gue,

I would like to comment on a couple of issues you make. First, all of the
bare board electrical test manufacturers support IPC-D-356. As a matter of
fact, they are the ones that wrote to specification, and are responsible to
keep it current. There are no plans, nor a desire to support a standard such
as EDIF, since it does not support the manufacture of bare boards. What
little support it has is inadequate. 

The second comment has to do with fabricators modifying your gerber data.
Each manufacturer has capability requirements for etch, inner layer
shrinkage, etc. These factors are facility dependent and cannot be
standardized. The designer is intentionally asked to provide nominal data so
that each fabricator can adjust for his individual process variables. All
fabricators do this. A matter of fact, they have been doing this, long before
CAD/CAM. They used to mico-modify hand taped artworks, to correct for process
variables. The electronic age has only allowed them to be more efficient, and
to keep up with finer line technologies.

Regards,

Gary Ferrari
Executive Director
IPC Designers Council


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