I also make boards for a living. In fact over $200 million worth. You may want to think of xouts in a little different way..if you build a lot of boards that are in the range of 15x16 inches, there is a lot of circuitry and also there is no room for xouts. Therefore, you should learn how to build large panels with a lot of circuits on it the same way as one large circuit and not allow the shop to build them in such a manner as to require the customer to accept bad circuits on a panel. In other words, you should be able to get a vendor of PCB's to build perfect multiple up circuits on a panel and not charge extra for that privilege. However, it's not a bad idea to allow a 5% allowance if you feel like Santa. Murphy is alway lurking around. regards..hg