I need a small control panel and thought it would make a neat look to draw it, label it and use a little color, on the computer. I tried Word with no luck. I tried RTS and XtrkCad with no good results. There must be some programs that would give me a nice professional look, but I don’t know them yet. Anyone tried this?? I am open to some suggestions.
I would use Adobe Illustrator to do it if I was to do the work. It has a fairly steep learning curve though so I don’t think that would be a good program for a one time job if you are not familiar with it. You could try to use MS Paint. That program does have some good features, but it is a bit clunky in sizing things to fit. If you have a copy of autocad, you could use that also.
Dan Pikulski
www.DansResinCasting.com
I am a CNC programmer. I would also suggest AutoCad but for someone with no experience it would be impossable. Tell you what. If you send me a drawing and it isn’t to big I could do it for you on Virtual Gibbs and do it on my CNC machine at work. I could put lines, switches, holes, engrave it, ect. I have some cool materal to do it on also. Let me know? Just pay for shipping back to you. It would only be a few bucks.
8500HPGASTURBINE
Sounds interesting. I suppose you need a lot of dimensions. I could draw something on my little drawing program. What materials are we talking about? I am certainly interested. Thanks for the response.
Art,
If it’s small enough I have some scrap plastic. I have blue and green. It’s 2 pcs of plastic laminated together. It’s is a blue or green cover over a white piece. That way when you engrave it the white were you engraved it shows through were as the rest of the top is blue or green. It looks really great. If it’s bigger I have plexiglass (unbreakable) or even thin Aluminum that would also work great. A simple drawing would be fine. I could draw it up and email it to you for you to look at. I think the blue or green plastic would look the best. I had someone awhile back help me out and I have always wanted to return the favor to other fellow MRR’s.
8500HPGASTURBINE
I appreciat the offer. The blue laminate sounds good. I will put a sketch together soon.
Should we do this on Email instedd of the forum?
Art
You can just email it to me. Just draw something up and either scan it or just draw it up on some program and email it to me. We can email each other after that, OK?
Mike
I sent an email. If you cannot read the attachment, I may have to send that snailmail. The Program is KEYCAD.
I use Instant Architetch for general cad drawings.It’s pretty cheap(about $25) and easy to use. I’ve also used that AutoCad by Autodesk and it’s not that hard to use.It’s got a pretty good tutorial function but it is VERY expensive.
Where can you get anything from Adobe,wihout taking out a loan from a bank?
I got the full blown version of Adobe w/key. For free. It’s a $1100.00 program.
Where
You can get Adobe Photoshop Elements (version 3.0, now) for around $100. What it can do is perfect for many modelers needs.
Ethan
I managed to get release 10 from that online auction site used for $50.00 from a liquidator. I don’t recall the user name and it was bid on under a username I no longer have.
Dan Pikulski
www.DansResinCasting.com
Shareaza P2P network, I got Illustrator 8, Photoshop 7, and AutoCad 2005.Not to mention a whole bunch of music.
Art,
here is what I did on my computer. It’s 12 x 16. If you need any changes just let me know. It will look really good when it’s engraved.
Mike
This is how my control panel looks -
It’s a sheet of plain white paper with the graphics added on Adobe Photoshop and MS Paint, sandwiched between two sheets of lexan, fitted into a painted scrap-wood case.
Not counting electrical components, the panel was cheap as dirt - the only thing that cost anything was the lexan, which I picked up at Lowes for around $10, as I recall.
Photoshop is the answer to your question. I planned my whole layout with Photoshop and will draw a control panel with it as well. But remember to set the resolution to 300 pixels/inch. 72 is just for webgraphic and will not give you a good quality output on paper. 300 pixels/inch will also make your life a lot easier when you draw small details. When I planned my layout I used 600 pixels/inch to be able to measure everything with great accuracy. But 600 is overkill for paper so stick with 300 when you draw the control panel.
Your panel is absolutely wonderful. This is the way to do it! I’m a web designer so Photoshop is my main tool.