When to use oval and when to use round pads?

Hi - I've been doing a good deal of PCB drawing with Eagle over the last couple of days - and I've noticed something that I think is kind of odd. While most components use round pads, some use oval shaped pads. For example - all dual inline components that I've looked at in Eagle use oval pads. So initially I was thinking that they were a way to keep pads distanced but also leave plenty of space to solder - but then I noticed some other components with oval pads - like relays whose pins were very widely spaced. So - is there an advantage of one pad style over the other that I'm just not thinking of? Thanks!

-Michael J. Noone

Reply to
Michael Noone
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Oval pads for DIL ICs used to be popular when routing tracks between pins.

There's no special reason. I used to use ' squarish ' pads for ICs many yrs ago since it gave more pcb land for the pad itself. That's of some importance when using SRBP material.

Graham

Reply to
Pooh Bear

I often use oval pads for DIL chips on my home-made PCBs; I can get one track between them without any problems and they are more robust then round ones. I use round pads on PTH boards, of course.

Leon

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Leon Heller, G1HSM
http://www.geocities.com/leon_heller
Reply to
Leon Heller

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