Ok, after a number of emails back and forth with the folks at Advanced Circuits, I learned that the "industry standard" for solder masks is to print them with positive polarity (i.e. dark where you want solder to go) - you're specifying the reliefs, not the mask around them. Apparently, some shops will accept either and just fix them as needed.
For professional boards I've always sent the soldermask relief as a
positive layer, ie, dark where solder goes as you said. The boards I've
done with PCB were fabbed by a low cost place and I didn't get
soldermask on those.
Hey Dan, would you mind if I asked which board house you use, and could you (if you have a spare moment) give me a quick rundown on what you sent to them, and any other information they require? I'll be doing a board with PCB very soon and I need to find a cheap board house to fab them.
Thanks,
-Dave-- Dave McGuire "You don't have Vaseline in Canada?" St. Petersburg, FL -Bill Bradford
