Cheryl is very correct... I also know from personal experience that Tom Hausherr and his cohorts are by and large very great guys and have been working hard on what finally has become the IPC-7351 spec without compensation for many years now... I think it all started with Tom's spearheading a movement to get Metric adopted... the presentations he did at our meetings in San Diego on routing BGA's were so telling of just how ridiculous it was to be building parts in mm and routing them in inches when it closed off channels to route between the pads under a BGA for example... I think his past experience with developing libraries of parts for the PADS community gave him the inspiration to get a project going to make a Metric Library that everyone could use...and it was built by volunteers who spent time making parts and contributing them to his effort and then the inspiration to actually replace the IPC-SM-782 with a standard that not only the designers could use but would benefit the assembly and manufacturing communities as well. JaMi Smith jumped in and identified and corrected some very bad flaws in the orientation they were using for their library parts based upon what the component manufacturers were doing in packaging for Pick and Place etc. and they had to go back and rewrite much of the spec to correct this.... all without someone paying them to do any of this... and finally they went into meetings with the Europeans to get approvals there as well... So it's going to be a long time before they have recovered what they have invested in the development of this spec... and I saw nothing but noble motives in what Tom was doing, so I expect it will eventually be very beneficial for the entire industry and should make all our lives better through the use of the spec. Not everyone will adopt it... not everyone needs to. But the more that do, the better it will be. I don't know why they pulled the IPC-SM-782 calculator off... I think it should still be available to anyone that is using the IPC-SM-782 spec to still build their parts... even if the new IPC-7351 spec supercedes it we should still support the old one with a disclaimer that the new one is available and supercedes it... People will not adopt the new one over night and we need to serve the entire designer community. In the interests of fairness... I say we should reinstate it and put a note on the website where folks can get the new and improved one... that way they aren't left with a broken link and no idea what happened and an angry discovery that the tool they have been using is no longer available... Maybe we can get the IPC to do that for us...I'll ask, pretty please. 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 -----Original Message----- From: Cheryl Johnson [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2005 8:35 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [DC] IPC Design Specifications (or new subject maybe) As a member of IPC Designer's Council (since Dieter was in Colorado having workshops about possible design specs - before there was a Designer's Council!) I know that the IPC DC is a group of volunteers who are not "duly compensated" with other than knowing that they are helping our industry. The companies and individuals that work on these specs for the most part are filling a void - truly giving of their time for the good of the industry. Having been on the "core team" for most of the 13 years of on and off existence of the Colorado Designer's Council (hard to keep volunteers!), I have truly appreciated the efforts of the IPC to come up with Designer specific specs and certifications. As a Girl Scout cookie mom for several years, church parish council member, booster clubs for all my kids activities (I have 5) and a proverbial all around "volunteer" when I am not working full time as a pcb designer - I'd like to Thank IPC for their efforts. I'd also like to offer - "If you don't like the way it is getting done - why don't you volunteer to help?" Sincerely, ----------------------------------- Cheryl Johnson, C.I.D.+ Manager ExcelStor US Office, Engineering Services Email: [log in to unmask] Tel: (303) 684-7291 Fax: (303) 684-7268 Mobile: (303) 809-5815 ----------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------