On May 6, 2012, at 4:58 AM, Electron wrote:

> what is the typical/standard size for a circular pad surrounding a hole o=
f X mils, to get maximum reliability?

Well, "obviously" the width of the ring of copper around the hole should be=
 at least as wide as the minimum track width of the PCB process being used.=
  So if your have an 8mil design requirement for track width, you'd get pad=
Diameter =3D holeDiameter + 16mil.  Add on tolerance factors for drill posi=
tion and consider whether some inexperienced human is going to be poking at=
 it with a hot soldering iron, and you frequently get limited by lead spaci=
ng and how many tracks (and of what width) you want to fit between the lead=
s.

In EAGLE, for a hobbyist design and hand-soldering, I usually increase the =
"minimum" "RestRing" DRC parameter as much as I can without violating "clea=
rance" DRC parameters.

BillW

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