Bob:

It's generally better to have one drill file containing both plated and non-plated holes; however, it's
easier to have different tool numbers assigned to the plated and non-plated holes of the same diameter.

Don Vischulis
ITO Industries
[log in to unmask]

Bob Walker wrote:

> Hi All,
>
>  I'm trying to better understand the process of drilling holes in a PCB
> and the files that are used by the board fabricators to do this. I am a
> PCB designer and presently send gerber files (fabrication gerber
> included) and a drill file (excellon format) to my board house for boards
> to be made. The fabrication drawing contains a drill table with symbols
> that represent each hole size and whether or not it is a plated or
> non-plated hole. I never allowed a plated and non-plated hole to be the
> same size in any of my designs because my CAD tools couldn't recognize
> that a plated and non-plated hole could be the same size and thus
> couldn't generate 2 different symbols for each. Well now my CAD vendor
> has provided me with the ability of tagging my padstacks as either a
> plated or non-plated hole so that I can generate a different drill symbol
> for my fab drawings. And I can also generate different drill files that
> can either include all hole styles, only plated holes or only non-plated
> holes which I thought would help my board fabricator out by not having to
> separate out the plated from the non-plated hole coordinates in the drill
> file. But when I called him to see if he could make better use of 2 drill
> files (plated and non-plated), he said he only wants the 1 file that
> contains both the plated and non-plated hole locations. Wouldn't it be
> better to have the 2 files? What don't I know? I would greatly appreciate
> all feedback from any designers or board fabricators.
>
> Regards,
>
> Bob Walker
> [log in to unmask]
>
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