Solder Mask

[james_s]

Sure software always has bugs, but to have a bug in such a fundamental base feature that occurs more often than that one in a million chance on some kind of really unusual PCB is inexcusable. I've watched the software industry slide downward for years now, company after company eliminates QA entirely either trying to rely entirely on automated testing or taking the Microsoft approach roping in a bunch of fanboys as unpaid testers and then using the paying customers as the final QA. The result is garbage, I refuse to be the QA on software I paid for and I refuse to pay for software that has not been properly tested.

[Siwastaja]

Well, I agree with your reasoning, but it doesn't matter; with your criteria (however justified), you have no PCB design tool available. At least not any of the big ones people are actually fairly productive with (such as Altium). You can, of course, always refuse to design any PCBs - problem solved.

Accepting proprietary, buggy, broken-by-design EDA software is one of those compromises which really hurts to make.

[james_s]

Well I don't know the nature of this specific Altium bug or how often it occurs, however in the ~8 years I've been using KiCad I have never had a problem with any board I've made that was caused by a bug in the software.

[Reckless]

Can JLCPCB make solder masks on their pcbs?