How To Specify Plated Holes?

You're right, I am not happy with my board vendor's (MassDesign) lack of understanding and involvement in this process, but I need "assembly" not just PCB's and they are one of the few supported vendors.

The concept of FabStream's SoloCapture/SoloPCB tools is that the tools are "free" but you are locked into a board vendor because they do not provide the gerber files.  I had to point out that MassDesign's own advertisement on the FabStream site says "Free CAD files" then pester them for days to get the files.  But you still don't get them until AFTER ordering the boards, which means you lose the ability to review and resolve physical issues.  Bad business model, IMHO. 

So I am in round-three of my prototype design (at $360 a pop) because of tool errors I could not have detected.  The SoloPCB tools do not detect the plated hole issue (they say it will be done in the future) and MassDesign's response was "garbage in = garbage out".  They do no electrical testing on boards coming in from this process.  I have used MassDesign for years on other products, but not with this tool suite.  They clearly treat these tools as hobbyist's toys.

...but in all fairness, the plating issue has turned out to be a problem with Library Expert PRO.  The lack of detection and prior issue of starved, overlapping thermal reliefs, has turned out to be problems with FabStream's tools, and the further lack of detection and general don't care attitude, is from MassDesign.   While we are spreading the blame around, I too am to blame for jumping onto a relatively unproven set of tools rather than sticking with what has worked for years.   Fortunately, the cost of these multiple rounds of rework will be absorbed by profits down the road.  Gotta spend money to make money!

I personally would never use again a PCB fabricator who gets a design with all holes unplated and never flags this out to the customer. Do they do any preCAM inspection?

Just to wrap up this thread, below is the reply I received from FabStream regarding this issue.  I will try the new version, but since these boards are already finished and they utilized approx 60 footprints created by the older version, what do I need to do to propagate this fix into my designs?  Presumably I have to "build" all of the affected parts again to update my library, but deleting and replacing the parts in my layout is a no-go since it would destroy a huge amount of manual routing.  Should I build the parts as "alternate" footprints and select the alternates in SoloPCB?  Seems like it might work, but this is round three for this board so I'd like to be sure. 

...from FabStream...

"We have confirmed with PCB Libraries that there was an error in their Library Pro Expert product. The error was discovered and corrected. A new 2014.09 release will be made available tomorrow (09-03-2014) that has the correction. The product incorrectly defined plated pads as non-plated in SoloPCB."

"PCB Libraries also informed us the person that discovered the error (ALINK) is eligible for a free upgrade to their 2015 release. You should contact them directly for this upgrade."

"The type of checking you suggest (detect opens that result from lack of plating in a hole) are not presently available in the SoloPCB product is planned for a future release."

FabStream Support

In the through-hole Calculator component families, every hole is automatically plated and you have no control of that with the exception of the Mounting Hole calculator can toggle Plated or Non-plated.

The FP Designer the user has a Plated check box and an assortment of pad shapes.

And even though the calculator will provide a good annular ring, the user can override the calculation and enter a unique pad size.

Once the pad stacks are created and you select the "Done" button, the Pad Stack Manager dialog window will open. That allows the user to further customize each pad stack for outer and inner layers, solder and paste mask, anti-pad and thermal relief, making the FP Designer totally flexible to create unique pad stacks.

You should upgrade to V2014.09 which will be available next week -