Jason, You are experiencing nothing new. Most designers, at least the older ones, have never recieved any formal training. There was none available. It was always on the job training. In all probability, the older boards you are going to convert, are analog circuits and don't require the same expertise that the boards of today require, with their higher speeds and digital circuitry. Yes, it was more aesthetic than it is today, but not necessarily a bad board. I think you'll have a harder time regenerating them into surface mount components than anything else, simply because the routing will have to be so different. You might as well not look at anything except the schematic and revised parts list. As you said, your company has been in the business a long time, so the boards generated over the years must have been good. Don't forget that something that may appear to be an asthetic design could have other reasons too, such as a height requirement, heat (thermal), weight or vibration. The same rule applies today as it did 10-15 years ago. Let 10 people design the same board and you'll get 10 different layouts. I would recommend to you to read anything you can get your hands on. IPC specs, trade magazines and such. Get some formal training if you can (It's still hard to do, even today). Talk to your board vendor(s) and assemblers. They can give you advice as to what they can, or cannot do and what they need from you. Pick the old guys brains for their advice and help. Most of it is still just as useful today as it was yesterday (unless the laws of physics has changed and nobody told me). Good luck with your endeavor. Larry Campbell ################################################################ 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's web site (http://www.ipc.org) "On-Line Services" section for additional information. For technical support contact Hugo Scaramuzza at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.312 ################################################################