Steve, A standard is in effect an 'agreed upon' language of communication or method of doing things that when adopted reduces confusion and miscommunication and simplifies methods used between the parties involved. It is a consensus of the parties involved... A standard is never 'cutting edge'. It is just a documented account of what has become common and accepted. Using the standard provides the user with a collective set of rules and methods that they can adopt to conform to the majority of users and save time and money and effort in the process when doing business with them. For our part we have adopted the use of the IPC specs in our footprint models and reference them when specifying acceptance criteria for our boards when they are manufactured and assembled. Designing to the IPC specs makes our designs compatible with the equipment and tools the manufactures and assemblers are likely to have. This helps us avoid manufacturing problems and assembly issues when producing our products and provides us with a standardized market from which we can get competitive bids on our jobs and save money. Are you currently using the IPC specs? What other standards are you using in your Printed Circuit documentation system? Best regards, Bill Brooks - KG6VVP PCB Design Engineer, C.I.D.+, C.I.I. Tel: (760)597-1500 Ext 3772 Fax: (760)597-1510 Datron World Communications, Inc. _______________________________________ San Diego Chapter of the IPC Designers Council Communications Officer, Web Manager http://dcchapters.ipc.org/SanDiego/ http://pcbwizards.com -----Original Message----- From: Mariani, Stephen [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2005 7:57 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [DC] IPC2221, IPC2222 All, I would like to get an idea on how may of you design PCB's using IPC manuals or a company design standards driven from mfg or both? Does anyone only use IPC standards to create designs? Thanks Steve --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------