Easytrax questions

[macdonald at evenfall.com]

I have been using Easytrax for a while now to lay out a board I want to
have prototyped.  I am fairly comfortable with the program now, but have
yet to actually send a board out to be made (soon I hope!).

Everything was going along great until I started thinking about the pin
diameters of the various components I am placing on the board.  Some are
much thicker than others (.100" header connectors for example).  I
realized then that I had seen nothing about specifying hole sizes for
the various pads I was placing.  Then when I went to the "information"
window, the "holes" number was only indicating the number of vias I had
placed, and not all the pads. So does placing a pad also place a hole?
It must be so because you can connect traces to a pad on the top and
bottom layers. But how do I specify a hole size for a particular pad?  I
see there is a via hole size option mentioned in the Easytrax manual but
I can't seem to access that.  I must be missing something obvious...

Also, assuming that the hole size can be specified, can anyone offer
some guidelines for how much tolerance to add to the hole sizes, so I
don't get a board made with components that won't fit in the holes. For
example, if a component pin is 0.036" in diameter, would a 0.040" hole
be sufficient?

I have several Easytrax tutorials, and none seem to cover the topic of
hole/component sizes.  If one exists, I would be happy to take a link to
it and go away.  :-)

Also, I would be grateful for recommendations of a good prototype PCB
manufacturer in the U.S.  Sorry to ask this question again, I know
someone recently posted it but I didn't see any public responses.

Thanks,

Chris MacDonald