Just out of curiosity, does a PCB fabricator care whether the teardrops are created using traces or flashes? It seems like the teardrop shapes created with draws would baffle a netlist checker seeing all the extra connections, whereas the snoman or keyhole method (using round flashes) wouldn't, but I have never heard anyone mention that. Does anyone care? Jack Regarding: A quick comment: Adding teardrops (aka snowman pads, doubleflash) is very easy for a fabricator to add with a CAM station (global edit). From a design perspective it may be more difficult. Some software (CAD) requires the teardrop placement to be specified with respect to the pad location. If added to an edge or corner of a pad it may not end up on the location where the trace connects to the pads. (It's getting better though. Some design software packages are getting smarter. :-)) Now on the electrical performance side.....Be very careful if the design is for RF! (Such as telecommunications) If the designer has tweaked and peaked his design for HF and has modeled his design from an EMC/EMI perspective, adding teardrops to a short trace can greatly change the net capacitance to the point to where it may not perform as designed. : / It's always best to ask the customer up front or get a blanket approval. IPC-2221 has great (suggested) designer guidelines showing teardrops and fillets. Dave Hoover (aka, Groovy) ############################################################## TechNet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ############################################################## To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TECHNET <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TECHNET ############################################################## Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional information. If you need assistance - contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ##############################################################