I would daresay JaMi has NOT had his coffee yet... :) As usual, he is right on the money with the reason most have not had an easy answer to the query by Joseph... JaMi has extensive Protel experience as I do and there are most likely others on this forum that could help... My first suggestion would be to visit the Protel Forums... http://www.altium.com/forums/index.html Sign up for as many as you feel will get you connected with your peers and mentors and work it from there... Also, there are training programs available on how to use the software, build components, etc... Most of the footprints in Protel are adequate for proto boards. The nuances of footprint building are really customizing based upon the equipment and tooling used to build your boards and their various limitations. When I first started learning about surface mount components I bought a book published by Howard W. Sams, the Author was James K. Hollomon, Jr. and the title is 'Surface-Mount Technology for PC Board Design'. On page 375 there is a chapter on Component and Land Geometries that covers some of the thinking behind land pattern development for different component types like passives, pots, small outline packages, D-paks, SOT packages, gull wing, J-lead, leadless chip carriers or PLCC's etc... on page 413 he talks about the pattern and the shape of the solder joint and what changing the pattern does to the strength of the solder joint and some of the failure modes you may encounter if the pattern is asymmetrical or poorly shaped. He also talks about the stresses that are put on the solder connection in shear and tension when the board is under stress and these affects on the solder joint which is the only mechanical support for the part. Breaking out from a land pattern and placement of the vias is also discussed, well there's a lot to read there, but it was a great guide to getting into the field from the through hole world, and I keep it in my library for ready reference in addition to the IPC-SM-782 which I used as a guide for making land patterns as well. I understand that PCB libraries will be releasing a Protel set of libraries for sale soon and it might be worth your while to purchase it... that will of course be based upon the next generation spec that will replace IPC-SM-782 and will cover ready made patterns taking into account the minimum acceptable pad configuration and the maximum acceptable pad configuration. You can visit their site or talk with Tom Hausherr about it. He's a good guy and a CID+ as well and knows what's going on in the progress of the release of that spec IPC-7351. The Protel wizard will also help some in getting a part built quickly and roughly close to what you want, and it prompts you for the information that you can plug into it from looking at the data sheet physical description. I hope that helps a little... send me any specific questions you have offline and I will try to point you in the right direction... the Protel forum is very helpful and very active... and is usually better support than you can get anywhere else... well expect maybe here... :) Best regards, Bill Brooks - KG6VVP PCB Design Engineer , C.I.D.+, C.I.I. Tel: (760)597-1500 Ext 3772 Fax: (760)597-1510 e-mail:[log in to unmask] http://www.dtwc.com http://pcbwizards.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DesignerCouncil Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF DesignerCouncil. To temporarily stop/(restart) delivery of DesignerCouncil send: SET DesignerCouncil NOMAIL/(MAIL) Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & Databases > E-mail Archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------