One technique for forming conductive lines or traces is to place a substrate or panel such as an integrated circuit package substrate or a panel into a tank with a plating solution. Also in the tank is an electrode (e.g., an anode). The anode and the panel are connected to a power source that causes the movement of ions in the solution to be plated on the panel. In one technique, an insulating electroplating base shield is placed between the anode and the panel. The shield functions to modulate the electric field in an attempt to produce a more uniform plating of a material (e.g., copper) on the panel. A shield typically has a number of openings therethrough, the openings defining an array or grid having a two-dimensional coordinate system. The placement of the openings in the shield is generally done by an experimental approach in which a starting shield, typically of an arbitrary distribution of uniformly spaced holes, is inserted into the plating bath. A test product is plated and a finite number of point thicknesses are subsequently measured. Based on the limited information about the thickness distribution of plated material across the panel, tape or blocking material is placed over various regions (over various existing openings) and/or new openings are added to the shield in order to alter a thickness distribution across the panel. This altered shield is then re-inserted into the plating bath and a new test panel is plated and measured. This process is repeated until a sufficiently uniformed distribution is obtained. Such experimental trial and error solutions can take as many as ten iterations and one or two months or more.