My company has been designing PC boards since the early '80s. However, we haven't formalized our PCB Design procedures or preferences. Things like preferred PCB sizes, preferred location of mounting holes, preferred component types, etc. All of this is taught to new hires by existing people already doing that work.
We are looking to the future when people start to retire and are not available to pass their knowledge onto new Engineers and CAD people.
We could start from scratch and build up a set of documents that specify our way of doing things. However, it seems that it might be much easier to adapt an already-existing set of documents and procedures to our needs. An added advantage of adapting existing procedures that they might point out something that we are not currently doing or haven't thought of.
What I'm looking for is pointers on where to find such documentation or templates for that documentation. I don't mind paying for the documentation so long as I can determine ahead of time that it meets our needs.
Our PCB designs are quite simple, although often very dense. Single-sided PCBs for simple high-volume products using through-hole components, double-sided for almost everything else. I don't recall ever doing a PCB design with more than two layers, although I've had to fix design mistakes done by others. But our stuff is simple enough that two layers is adequate.
Please note that I am NOT asking for opinions on how to do this documentation. Rather, I am asking where I can go search out such documentation that could be considered to be industry-standard. Even providing search terms would be extremely useful.
Best Answer
As mentioned, IPC standards are the place to start. You can go to www.IPC.org to find out about the organization and their standards. This can be a bit overwhelming, so they have also created a checklist to get you started.
IPC Checklist
You can go through the checklist to see which standards are applicable to your products, and you can call those standards out in your documentation.