Tom,

	From the design side, I couldn't agree with you more - let's pitch
	the darn silkscreen.  When we're doing automated assembly and trying
	to pack 0603's as densely as possible, the legend often is larger
	than the component itself.

	With CAD tools these days, interconnect can take less time than
	preparing a decent silkscreen.  But the tool vendors are only able
	to sell based on routing speed, and you can guess where the R&D goes.

	UNFORTUNATELY, having carried this campaign in a few directions,
	the universal stumbling blocks are inspection and test.  As tools
	like Unicam, Fabmaster (others?) proliferate, the ICT community will
	universally search and inspect from a database; the inspection problem
	probably won't go away until AOI of finished product becomes practical,
	at least on a sampling basis.

	Also the folks in the lab trying to debug the 1st piece would need
	genuine CAD-like tools for reference.  This won't happen until low-
	cost review tools are widely available (CAD vendors out there?).

	When I do sleep, I dream of databases as master drawings.... and
	trees standing undisturbed.

	Regards,

        Jeff Seeger                             Applied CAD Knowledge Inc
        Chief Technical Officer                      Tyngsboro, MA  01879
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