John,

I don't have a concern over clean up work..I use a netlist compare
function to verify all changes..and with todays real time systems for
netlist you can even get errors of "do you want to change this
net?"..CAM systems are getting better at dealing with really bad
data..:)....

My biggest pet peave is AUTOCAD..circuits..they convert to gerber
horribly and the designer never realizes that his design is way off.
AutoCAD recognizes draws of infinite size and we know that below .0005"
it makes no difference to the plotter.

Talk with the designer, When you output from Protel, instead of drawn
and filled ground planes have them set up paint-scratch-paint
layers..this works well for reducing large files, but means more
instruction is needed for plotting.  The first paint is a solid then
scracth the reliefs, then paint back the thermals and imbbedded
traces..

Doug





You wrote:
>
>Doug,
>
>Thanks for your reply.  We certainly do do some clean up now but
>there are times when the chance of our software altering data is too
>large to warrant the effort.  We certainly can upgrade but at 35-50K
>Canadian it is difficult for me to bring the cheque signers on side.
>
>My main gripe which I neglected to focus on was the attitude of the
>folks at Protel to the issue of file size.
>
>Regards
>
>John Parsons
>

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