>    Barry Darnell

I deleted the answers given by another user regarding this subject, but
the jest of it was that you needed to provide more information. I will
have to agree with that statement and add what we have been doing. If you
cad system can use different vias, I have a via_018 and a via_018_tnt.
The first one has all the normals defined for drill hole, solder mask,
and padsize and so on. The second item does not have any solder mask
defined for the pad. I use this via for almost all of the layouts. When
the board is complete, I find/pick all my test point vias, and change
them to the via_018. BTW the via_018 is named for the drill size i.e.
.018 dia. We were using dry film for these boards with tented vias but
the board house has added to their normal process, the per-plugging of
the holes on the tented vias as a separate step and it has become so
popular that they don't charge extra for the process. They do however,
try to discourage the use of the dry film and stick with the LPI mask. We
don't use ATE for our boards but I still use the tented vias for the
soldering part of the equation, you know, bridging.....
Just wanted to put my $.02 in to the pot..


Scott Decker
Electronics Designer
AKA: PadMasterson
Ext. 322

Hamilton Company
Reno. NV
Ph. (702)-858-3000
FAX. (702)-856-7259

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