/learn/publications/b/blog/posts/soldermask-on-pcbs-with-tight-clearancesUntil the past year, the tightest PCB trace separation I have had to use is 5 mils [0.13mm]. Typically I try to use 8 mils [0.20mm] or 10 mils [0.25mm] if possible to reduce PCB costs. I recently did a board that required 4-mil [0.10mm] mi...en-USTelligent Community 12https://community.element14.com/learn/publications/b/blog/posts/soldermask-on-pcbs-with-tight-clearancesThu, 21 Jul 2011 18:01:41 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:96fb2dbf-f8c9-4820-8014-ee07a070389fFormer Member1<p>Altium designer 10 (and older versions) allow solder &amp; paste mask expansions to be set, as well as minimum solder mask slivers to be specified in the DRC rules.&nbsp; Altium has it&#39;s problems, but it&#39;s better than other ECAD packages I have used.&nbsp; Altium&#39;s documentation is also good, perhaps even excellent depending on your POV.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>As an aside, Mentor Graphics appears to be worried about the popularilty of Altium, because it bought out the company that created the IPC Wizard footprint tool, and then prompty &quot;discontinued&quot; support for Altium Designer.&nbsp; Mentor would not send me a quote when they learned I was using it for Altium.</p><img src="https://community.element14.com/aggbug?PostID=12857&AppID=45&AppType=Weblog&ContentType=0" width="1" height="1">