I believe the bigger question is "Would standardization hurt or help", not "DO we standardize". Remember, each company is unique, and you have to use what is most productive in your situation. Dennis Beerman, CID Alliant Techsystems ---------- From: Cyrus Ringle [SMTP:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2000 3:06 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [DC] Drill symbol standardization 1) Does your company use standard hole size symbols across all designs? A) NO 2) If so, does your software accommodate this, or is it a manual process for you? 3) If so, do your end users (design, manufacturing or process engineers) find this to be valuable? A) The engineers do not check thinking they will be the same. Checking is done using DXF and prints that call out the specific ones "Mounting holes" with a callout and do not rely on a chart. The chart is for all non specific holes like vias, dips, discrete etc. Cyrus Ringle CID IPC Certified Interconnect Designer Sr. CAD Specialist Inter-Tel, Inc. http://www.inter-tel.com 7300 W. Boston St. Chandler, AZ 85226 (480) 961-2263 mailto:[log in to unmask] President of the Greater Phoenix Designers Council Ron James <[log in to unmask]> on 03/07/2000 12:13:03 PM Please respond to "DesignerCouncil E-Mail Forum." <[log in to unmask]>; Please respond to Ron James <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] cc: (bcc: Cyrus Ringle/Inter-Tel) Subject: [DC] Drill symbol standardization I would like to take an informal poll of other designers on the lists to see how many companies use standardized drill symbols on fabrication drawings. (i.e. always use the same symbol for .021 holes, etc, on all fab drawings for all designs.) We changed from PCAD to Orcad a couple of years ago. In PCAD we built the padstacks to include the symbol, so by default used a standard symbol for each size. Orcad handles drill symbols by automatically assigning them and creating a chart in the database (a very nice feature from my point of view.) The symbol/size association will be different from one design to another. Also, Orcad is limited to 46 different symbols, and we are already pushing that number of drill sizes for our entire library. This means that if we want to use standard symbols across all designs, we will have to bypass Orcad's automatic symbol assignment and come up with a very manual process. This question is being prompted by engineers who really liked the standardized symbols, and feel that their ability to check drawings is made significantly easier by that system. They have been burned in the past by hole size issues and feel that such errors will be more difficult to catch if they can no longer compare drawings at a glance (new vs old revisions, or two unrelated designs that use the same parts, etc.) To sum up my questions: 1) Does your company use standard hole size symbols across all designs? 2) If so, does your software accommodate this, or is it a manual process for you? 3) If so, do your end users (design, manufacturing or process engineers) find this to be valuable? Thanks for any and all assistance. Please pardon the duplication between lists. Ron James, CID UT Electronic Controls