Not loaded, not placed etc.

[LukeW]

When drawing up schematics, BOMs, or documentation for assembly contractors, you often see lots of different interchangeable terminology used to specify an empty placeholder spot on the PCB where no component is installed.

NP, NL, DNI, DNP etc.

It's weird that there are four different terms for the same thing.

Do the different terms have any specific meaning in a particular context, so they're not really all the same thing?

What's the most common? Is there a "standard"?

What's the best terminology to use? What has the lowest probability of causing the assembler to come back puzzled asking what that component is and where its reel is?

[Alphatronique]

Hi

DNP see the most popular   ,but agree that it have way to much variation that may lead assembly error

you may add "NI" to your list  Not installed

as a assembler i hate all that variation ;-)

[calexanian]

Thats why we always provide a sample board. Leave nothing to chance!

[VK3DRB]

This highlights a lack of standards. There are IEEE symbol standard. And there should be standards for this term for a not fitted component. Maybe there is, but I have never heard of it and neither has most others.

IBM used NOPOP. I have seen some fools use NF (not fitted). That is just stupid because it is ambiguous with nanofarad. Also I have seen DNF (do not fit).

One a similar topic, on schematics, some people use an underscore for a net's word delineation. With Altium, that is very bad practice because it is hidden by the schematic wire. SomePeopleUseCamelCaseConsideringThatHighQualityPrintersAndScreensAreNowCommonplace.  Others use a hyphen for delineation. But to remove ambiguity they replace a negative sign they use a lower case n and the rest is upper case.