Jeff, The biggest thing coming online is your manufactures are getting away from Gerber when then can, Gerber has no intelligence to it. It is a series of x-y coordinates with an aperture list, there is too much room for error especially if you are manually inputting the data. As we all know some of the CAD tools output isn't always "what you see is what you get". By importing an IPC-D-356 format netlist you can turn your Gerber data intelligent. Helping identify possible errors before the board gets built. We process Gerber data on only 40% of our jobs the remaining go through an EDA interface. Which allows the board shop access to all the information that you have which will reduce cost for tooling and test fixtures and insuring that a good board gets built through some very powerful verification tools. I've been in the service business for 20 years and it is extremely valuable, considering everyone thinks that they are a PCB expert. VALOR and ADI are manufacturing tools that most board shops use in their front end CAM when setting up the production process. These tools help identify etching errors, annular ring issues, stubs, slivers, continuity, along with many other issues. These tools are helping us get closer to outputting IPC-D-350 data structures that the CAD manufactures have not done yet. I could go on for ever but I don't want to ramble. The verification is also great with training people who think the are an expert, it will point out manufacturing flaws that us experts don't even consider most of the time. The main thing you have to remember is by setting up you data correctly it keeps the board shops from messing with your data as little as possible. There are a lot of designers out there that think there data is perfect and shops do nothing to it (Ha ha, if they only knew). Call or email if questions. Thank you - Dave [log in to unmask] - Operations Manager Praegitzer Design - San Diego a division of Praegitzer Industries, Inc. 9605 Scranton Road, Suite 310 San Diego CA 92121 (619) 450-0994 ext. 161 voice (619) 450-0529 fax (619) 982-7872 pager please visit our web site at http://www.pii.com/ ################################################################ 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 ################################################################ ################################################################ TechNet 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 TechNet <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TechNet ################################################################ 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 ################################################################