You should definitely have global fiducials on your boards for SMT assembly. You may also need local fiducials near parts that need extra placement accuracy. It takes extra time to look at more fids so you need to balance productivity and placement defect rates. When you need local fids depends on your products (board size, component size, lead and ball pitches) and your placement equipment. There isn't a general answer. You really need to address this question with your placement equipment vendor. They should be able to tell you what is best for the equipment you are using. Regards, Dan Blass Process Research Engineer Area Array Consortium Surface Mount Technology Lab Universal Instruments Corporation http://www.uic.com/wcms/WCMS2.nsf/index/Global_Svc_Support_31.html --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/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 -----------------------------------------------------