The ground plane fill clearance should be larger than your solder mask clearance. I work with old design rules (most of my stuff is still thru-hole) - my solder mask clearance is 12 mils, ground fill clearance is 16 to 25 mils. The solder mask has to cover the ground plane if you don't want solder bridges during wave solder. dwayne >What is the proper distance that should be used to separate ground fill from >other tracks (different nets) and pads also different nets? The minimum track >width for my board is 10 mil. > >It looks like the default for Protel is 4mil. (.004 inches) around holes and >.008 mil from other tracks That seems a little tight. > > > >Thanks > >Jon > Dwayne Reid Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd Edmonton, AB, CANADA (780) 489-3199 voice (780) 487-6397 fax Celebrating 15 years of Engineering Innovation (1984 - 1999) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Do NOT send unsolicited commercial email to this email address. My posting messages to Usenet neither grants consent to receive unsolicited commercial email nor is intended to solicit commercial email.