Jack, What's your timeline on this? Regards John Parsons -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jack Olson Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 1:29 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] FAB:CAD2CAM I've recently had the opportunity to spend some time with "the CAM guy" at our primary circuit board supplier, and now a magazine has expressed an interest in publishing an article about what happens to data as it moves from CAD through CAM. If any of you are involved in this process, here is a golden opportunity to voice your concerns (or your "wish list"). I already have my notes for what happens to OUR data, but I would like to be more generic for the magazine. If you aren't doing CAM work but know someone who might like a shot at this, PLEASE forward this to them. The most surprising thing I learned this week was the extremely low percentage of jobs being submitted in an intelligant format. For example, we've been told for years to move to something like ODB++ or GENCAM, but I'm hearing that maybe only a few percent of the jobs are anything other than regular old Gerber. Is that true? Would it help you significantly to get some alternative to Gerber? I'm also interested to hear anyone's thoughts on the note that can be found on many drawings that says: "DATA SHALL NOT BE MODIFIED WITHOUT WRITTEN APPROVAL". Where do we draw the line on that? Plot film with data "AS IS"? How does it apply to etch compensation? removal of non-functional pads? teardropping? silkscreen clipping? What is "standard" editing, and what really should be pre-approved? We've been told to always place the origin on a tooling hole. Does it really matter? Would you rather have the soldermask 1:1 with the pad size and enlarge it yourself? Would it help you much to have positive planes drawn with unique aperture sizes? Does the format matter? inches? metric? consistent with drill? Would it help to have better README files that explain more of our intentions? (like a known netlist discrepancy, for example) What do you wish more people would do to make your life easier? Maybe its inconvenient to answer so many questions, but if we have a chance to teach designers what we want, shouldn't we try? (I'm gonna write it with you or without you, so don't complain if what gets published is off-grid) Also, If I didn't ask the question you want to answer, don't hesitate to add to the list! If YOU were King of the World for a day, what would you change? Thanks in advance, I'll try my best to write a fair and thorough article Jack [log in to unmask] --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0 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 -----------------------------------------------------