panel artwork

Tips & Tricks
1

a cool tip (tx ultra) for panel artwork

http://www.abacom-online.de/uk/html/frontdesigner-folien.html

2

i’m curious about people’s successes in using frontdesigner.  apparently you can save money on engraving with front panel express by making the design in frontdesigner, exporting to hpgl, and importing into fpd.

here’s a thread with tips on saving money in fpe, including how to export to hpgl and back into fpd.

http://electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20883

3

I use frontpanel ecpress and it indeed saves you alot of money.

You can export to hplg. Import it and hey no more pricing per line.

4

I just played around with it a bit using a test version of the sidLive panel:

  1. Using one text object for multiple lines of text - removed about 40 objects: saved 5€

  2. Drawing all lines in CadStd (as linked in the other forum) and importing them: saved 25€

  3. Removing the countersink for the 6 screws holding the panel in place (I can do that myself): saved 9€

Result - basically the same Panel cost reduced by almost 40€. That’s nice. Also I totally agree on the coloring, on a black anodized panel you don’t necessarily have to fill the engravings. Basically you get an inverted “black on aluminium” look that way. Saved another 25€

So with just a little time put into it, I could have saved 65€ on a 120€ panel. That sounds fair, doesn’t it?

5

a cool tip (tx ultra) for panel artwork

http://www.abacom-online.de/uk/html/frontdesigner-folien.html

You’ll have to drill/cut all the holes through the foil though. Which is incredibly annoying and can be pretty hard, when it comes to a lot of small holes like in the mod-matrix.

6

or if you use schaeffer front panel designer and order a panel , for few more bucks you can ask them to give you back an autocad/vector version of your project, then use photoshop or illustrator to do the final artwork, with nice fonts etc…it’s what I’ve done  for my seq (on lazertran sheet).

or you can print your fpd project 1/1 then use the printing to locate your drill points if you do yourself the drilling… it’s what i’ve done for my next Mbox…picture soon ;-)…

7

So with just a little time put into it, I could have saved 65€ on a 120€ panel. That sounds fair, doesn’t it?

well… +40€ for the software… ::slight_smile:

unless you…hehe… :P… you know wat I mean  ;D

8

well… +40€ for the software… ::slight_smile:

unless you…hehe… :P… you know wat I mean  ;D

it’s not available like that.  i looked simply because the demo doesn’t let you try the hpgl export.  it’s certainly worth the money if it saves you money on multiple panels.  perhaps sometime soon i’ll have it and i can offer some feedback.

9

it’s not available like that.  i looked simply because the demo doesn’t let you try the hpgl export.  it’s certainly worth the money if it saves you money on multiple panels.  perhaps sometime soon i’ll have it and i can offer some feedback.

N, I didn’t just… :wink: I didn’t EXPORT anything - you don’t need to. I just set up the same grid (2.54mm) in the cad tool abd redid the panel there, which added another 30 minutes of work but that’s worth the 65€ to me.