Well, with my experience, you may want to get quotes from other pcb fabricators. The quotes we get do not discriminate with trace thickness. As a matter of fact, our vendors usually don't see the board, they get a look at the fab, dimensions, hole sizes, # of layers, notes regarding material and process. Sometimes, I get the quotes over the phone. I do realize however, there may be many other methods for quoting the fab process. IMHO Scott -----Original Message----- From: JoAnn Amerson [SMTP:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Thursday, March 26, 1998 8:12 AM To: ScottS; DesignerCouncil Subject: [DC] Need suggestions My boss and I were talking yesterday about what our board fabricators can and cannot do. We're being asked to use 12mil traces as a minimum because anything smaller is an increase in price. I assumed 8mil was the "standard", unless otherwise called for due to current load, board size, etc. What are you, in the real world, using for your "plain Jane" signal traces? And also, he keeps telling me we use a foreign board fabricator for the boards that use soft gold. Something about it uses arsenic in the process and domestic vendors don't want the hassle or expense. I know that Hadco does soft gold and I think it's done in New York. Does anyone have any info on other companies located in the US who can do soft gold? JoAnn L. Amerson Design Librarian Red Lion Controls, Inc. E-mail: [log in to unmask] Voice: (717) 767-6961 ext 6308 ################################################################ DesignerCouncil E-Mail Forum provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ################################################################ To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE DesignerCouncil <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF DesignerCouncil ################################################################ Please visit IPC web site (http://jefry.ipc.org/forum.htm) for additional information. For the technical support contact Dmitriy Sklyar at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.311 ################################################################ ################################################################ DesignerCouncil E-Mail Forum provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ################################################################ To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE DesignerCouncil <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF DesignerCouncil ################################################################ Please visit IPC web site (http://jefry.ipc.org/forum.htm) for additional information. For the technical support contact Dmitriy Sklyar at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.311 ################################################################