Doug,

          As all of the SERVICE BUREAU types are reeling from your
          question...I too can agree with the responses I have seen so
          far.  Our dept. has had similar problems with the PCAD/ORCAD
          interface, and the fact that all engineers will have their
          package of preference.
          I can give you a comparison of a PCAD/OrCAD situation that
          may help in the future.  Orcad (if that's the tool yer
          using) will randomly rename all nets from different edit
          sessions from NETLIST extraction to NETLIST extraction.  The
          only way to ensure that this is nailed down is to REQUIRE
          the engineer to name all of his NETS (manual process
          unfortunately).  Hopefully, your tool can then extract the
          current netlist, as well as the new supplied netlist, and
          then compare those two lists (in pcad we "package" the
          netlist two a blank board, and then compare the old revision
          PCB to the NEW revision PCB, and compare the differences
          that the program comes up with).  This process could also be
          done with some basic  C++ code.

          Hope this comparison helps.

          Les Beller
          Echostar.
          [log in to unmask]

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