> Subject: Success! Resist Pen Works in HP Plotter!
    Congratulations!  Thanks for your research!

Um, while my "intro" got deleted and it wasn't THAT obvious, the headers do
show that this was a formwarded message (from sci.electronics) that is about
five years old...  (The joy of archives!)


    HOW SMALL do you dare make a trace on a board?  I generally use .060"
    traces width when I've got a Texas-sized space to run in, .030" if I'm
    cramped.  That would never fit between a pair if DIP pads.

The "not by any means low budget" shops that do cisco's big boards don't
seem to have any problems running traces between pads of small-outline (.05
inch pin spacing) ICs.  (The board I looked at had 16 layers, so I assume
if this wasn't well within capabilities, it would be on a different layer.)
(These boards also have other fine-pitch ICs, as well as BGAs and other
challenges.)  While "bigger is safer" sounds true, I think it's well within
the limits of even manual layout/etc to run traces between pads of a normal
DIP (although the drafting aids I've seen that support this also use
smaller PADs for the pins in those cases.)

BillW