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] > > ################################################################ > 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 > ################################################################ ################################################################ 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 ################################################################