Jack, The IPC-2222 says that large areas "may" be broken up. This standard's latest release is February, 1999 so it's a bit outdated. Years ago we used to do things like that to reduce file sizes but this is unnecessary today. A solid plane is better but be sure to balance out the copper on all layers to guard against warpage. I think the warpage issue is where the old IPC-2222 standard was going with the cross hatching idea. Ken _____________________________________ Kenneth J. Wood Saturn PCB Design, Inc. [log in to unmask] www.saturnpcb.com -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jack Olson Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 7:19 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] Hashing-Out Hatching Greetings, I was just reading through the latest draft of IPC-2222, and stumbled into the advice in section 10 regarding "large conductive areas", where we are advised to use some kind of etched pattern (cross-hatching) for any area larger than a 25mm diameter circle. I have done this exactly once in the last 22 years, does anyone else do this? Has anyone ever experienced a problem by NOT doing this? (not counting soldermask over HASL) Jack --------------------------------------------------- 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 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- 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 -----------------------------------------------------