Im trying to scan my enclosure but with little success.
I just got a big blur.
Are there certain settings you have to use?
Should I put something over the scanner since the lid doesnt fit on top?
Erm, I believe nowadays you just take a photo with a digital camera
Quote from: Schappy on May 19, 2010, 07:41:55 AM
Im trying to scan my enclosure but with little success.
I just got a big blur.
Are there certain settings you have to use?
Should I put something over the scanner since the lid doesnt fit on top?
It could be because the light is getting in around the enclosure, because it's not flat. ~arph is right, just take a good quality
digital cam photo then muck around with it in some paint application if you need to eliminate the background or whatever. :)
Sorry for the dumb question but how do you parlay a digital photo into a workable template that is the right size.
Crop it. then resize to correct width. Most photo edit programs also support mm or inches besides pixels.
but, are you trying to copy original artwork? ::)
Scanners focus "at" the glass. Whatever touches the glass will be in focus; focus quality gets very bad very quickly for stuff above the glass.
Here's a scan of a book, one end on the glass, the other end propped-up on a 1.5" thick pocket camera.
(http://i46.tinypic.com/25ztn5j.jpg)
The names are fairly clear. The faces are way fuzzy. The title is almost illegible even though the letters are 2" high. Then on the camera, the back is fairly clear but even the rounded corners and thumb-indent are fuzzy. (Image was reduced for posting; the flaws are clearer at full size.)
Outside light is a minor detail. I did this with cover wide open. You see that the fuzzy areas are also dark, not light, except the far edge of the camera which is near a window.
Take all the knobs and buttons off so you can get the face ON the glass.
Or use the camera. Have good light: two 60W lamps on the desk, or the north side of the house at mid-day. Press the "flower" button: this jiggers the lens for flower-size object focus. Then bring it into Paint, FotoChop, Irfan, Gimp etc and rotate, crop, bright/contrast, color bump.
I want to scan the enclosure just for drilling measurements for now.
Do you guys use this image for layering your artwork?
Use google and find the pdf datasheets for the Hammond enclosures. They are available from the Hammond website. Then you can import them (or dump them from a screen capture) into whatever drawing program you are using to do the drilling templates. Scale them to the proper size and use the enclosure dwgs as "background" for figuring out where to drill your holes.
Quote from: Schappy on May 19, 2010, 12:18:34 PM
I want to scan the enclosure just for drilling measurements for now.
Do you guys use this image for layering your artwork?
I did mine initially by drawing a box, printing, adjusting, printing, adjusting... etc. Took a little time, total waste of paper (although I could print 4 times one one sheet), but that was before I knew I could do this:
Quote from: DougH on May 19, 2010, 12:25:46 PM
Use google and find the pdf datasheets for the Hammond enclosures. They are available from the Hammond website. Then you can import them (or dump them from a screen capture) into whatever drawing program you are using to do the drilling templates. Scale them to the proper size and use the enclosure dwgs as "background" for figuring out where to drill your holes.
I will use the datasheet for my other boxes but I dont see a 1790 on the hammond website.
I have Adobe illustrator.
Can I just draw a box with that program or photoshop?
You can make a new file in photoshop that is the exact size as your box. So if you open a new file that is 5" by 7", for example, there's your box, minus the rounded corners. I highly doubt you'd want to drill anything in the corner. There's the low-tech route.
I scanned a bunch of boxes and imported the files into Photoshop to do layout/graphics. Was doing a reverse etch and wanted to see the curve on the corners of enclosure. Worked great.
Im not going to drill in the corners but would like to maybe have the artwork be able to fit.
Quote from: SpencerPedals on May 19, 2010, 02:42:40 PM
You can make a new file in photoshop that is the exact size as your box. So if you open a new file that is 5" by 7", for example, there's your box, minus the rounded corners.
Even better, use M$ Publisher. You can draw rectangles with rounded corners, circles with the centre marked (great for drilling templates) and so on. Makes designing labels or templates so much easier.
There are free alternatives like Scribus or OpenOffice Draw, but I don't know if they are as practical as M$Pub for that particular use. It might be worth a try.
Here's an example of what you can do with Publisher (and that's an old version):
(http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s115/tuco_06/labelexamples.jpg)
I measure to find the middle of my enclosure, mark it, and place graph paper with a line on the paper running right along the center line, and design out from there. Then, once I have all the markings, I scan into photoshop and turn it into a cleaned up digital copy, insert text, and then reverse and invert to make an etch transfer. The tactile placing of knobs and components in real life before moving to the PC makes it really easy to place things ergonomically and attractively.
DC9V,
Would you not be able to do that in either photoshop or illustrator?
If you're scanning anything shaped a way that doesn't scan well, you can try covering the object with a piece of heavy cloth. This will block out a lot of the background light and reflections, and hopefully give you a slightly crisper scan.
If you've already got a drilled box, you can measure the whole thing with a ruler, but it's sometimes easier just to scan the enclosure, usually when the holes are very off center. I like to mock up my art first in Illustrator, then drill using a sticker version of my artwork, then apply the actual graphic later.
Quote from: Schappy on May 19, 2010, 05:29:21 PM
DC9V,
Would you not be able to do that in either photoshop or illustrator?
I suppose so... I never really tried. Photoshop has a way of giving me a headache after more than 10 minutes spent trying to make it do what I want, so I only use it to touch up graphics.
I've never used Illustrator though.Publisher is totally different from Photoshop, it's meant to make page layouts so it's much more intuitive and faster when it comes to moving stuff around, editing...
I'd say that making a label with Photoshop would be like building a model house with clay, whereas with Publisher it'd be like using Lego bricks. But then I've always liked playing with Lego :icon_biggrin:
*Please note that this post is by no way an endorsement for Bill Gates or his company* :icon_mrgreen:
This BMP should go right - just delete the dragon and you have a good template - that's the template I always use.
And yeah I use GIMP on Linux. Free and easy!
(http://renegadrian.altervista.org/templates/tribal%20dragon.bmp)
Quote from: Schappy on May 19, 2010, 12:18:34 PM
I want to scan the enclosure just for drilling measurements for now.
Do you guys use this image for layering your artwork?
This is what I do. I make my boxes out of wood and then slap them on the scanner to get a 1:1 image to mark up in photoshop. I drill them before I scan them. I just have a cheap Canon USB scanner and it works perfect.
I actually messed around in photoshop last night and made some headway.
It looks like its pretty easy to do a template but Im still working on it. Measure the size of your enclosure.
Open up a new project and make it bigger than your box is going to be. Then go to view>show and you can show ruler and grid.
Then on your toolbar is a rounded rectangle selection. Drag your rectangle and size it using the ruler and grid. You need to fill the box with a color. Click on the layer with the rectangle and change color to white.
Now you can draw center lines and lines for drilling(havent figured this part out yet). There are some drilling templates out there that have images of pots, jacks, and switches.
You can import these images into photoshop and place them where you want them on the grid.
Use mulitple layers so you can add artwork later.
Quote from: Schappy on May 19, 2010, 01:46:38 PM
I have Adobe illustrator.
Perfect. After you import the drawing from the pdf and scale it, you can trace over it with Illustrator, add rounded corners, etc, etc. That's how I did mine. It works real well and I have done some real accurate drilling templates.
@ DC9V - I really like your layouts. Very nice artwork. Could you tell me how your Bass switch in implemented? Is it a cap switch? My friend has asked me to make a Rat for him to use with bass, but I haven't figured out how to do that. There is plenty of info on the Reutz and Turbo Rat mods, but I am not so sure about the bass.
Doug
I really think photoshop might be easier but I will try your way as well to see which one works better.
How do you trace over the image?
Do you open up a new layer?
Do you export to photoshop?
Quote from: Schappy on May 20, 2010, 09:19:52 AM
Doug
I really think photoshop might be easier but I will try your way as well to see which one works better.
How do you trace over the image?
Do you open up a new layer?
Do you export to photoshop?
I did it all in Illustrator. I think there is some kind of tracing function, and it is essentially on another layer. To be honest, I had to get my wife to show me how to do it... :icon_redface: She's the graphic artist.
I could never figure out Photoshop. It completely bewilders me...
I think Im going to stick with my method. If you google what you are trying to do in photoshop there is usually some kind of tutorial.
If you follow my photoshop method I think it might save some time.
Quote from: Pakaloabob on May 20, 2010, 08:07:36 AM
@ DC9V - I really like your layouts. Very nice artwork. Could you tell me how your Bass switch in implemented? Is it a cap switch? My friend has asked me to make a Rat for him to use with bass, but I haven't figured out how to do that. There is plenty of info on the Reutz and Turbo Rat mods, but I am not so sure about the bass.
Yes, that's a cap switch. I found this somewhere on the web:
QuoteReplace output cap (1µ) w/ 4.7µ (for bass)
I'm too much of an electronics noob to know if that's the best way to go, and I can't tell you if that works well as the effect isn't finished yet (I ordered some wrong value components, that's what happens when your handwriting is so bad you can't even read it yourself :icon_rolleyes:)
As for my layouts, they just use images found on the web and altered with Photoshop... The rest is Publisher magic. It really made my life easier. I use an old version my brother gave me when he switched to Mac, and if I didn't have it I'd use a freeware alternative. It beats Photoshop and all image software hands down for that particular purpose. And it's much more intuitive too.
I feel like a super advocate for Illustrator, but once you know what your way around the tools, you can create your layout, artwork and templates really quickly. It's super easy to move stuff around and change colors, much easier than Photoshop. Here's a really basic template I whipped up from some of my templates; a standard Hammond enclosure (using measurements from their site), to scale 5mm LED, to scale 3PDT (to scale, IIRC), a maybe to scale toggle, and some 3/4" Colored Davies Knobs that I eyeballed. These objects are grouped strange, so it may be hard to change colors and such, but as far as drilling templates it's the same. I layout all my knobs, switches, etc. and then mark their centers with a cross. Print out your cross marks onto sticker paper, or just carefully rubber cement the printer paper.
(http://www.harryday.com/images/hday_pedal_layout.jpg)
Right Click Save This Link for Ai Template (http://www.harryday.com/images/hday_pedal_layout.ai)
Looks like Im going to try to use illustrator.
Can someone tell me how to size the circles for the pots and also how to draw crosshairs so I can line everything up?
Hey Schappy, I just started using Illustrator, it's great! To make circles (called 'Ellipses' in illustrator), go to the 'Tools' toolbar (it should be on the left, if not click on 'Windows and open it from there) and click and hold the rectangle icon and drag down. From there you can choose 'Ellipse'. Then hold shift and click whereabouts in the document you want the ellipse (for a perfect circle) and drag down/up for a bigger/smaller ellipse, if you want an oblong don't hold shift.
The cross hairs are kind of the same deal, choose 'Line Segment' from the same toolbar, stretch to required size left/right, up/down etc. Hold shift for a perfectly straight line. Then after that, you'll probably want to 'Group' the lines/ellipse; to do this hold shift, select the lines and ellipse with the mouse, then click the 'object' menu and click on 'Group'. This keeps it all together. And then after you've aligned your pots, you can can group all of them so they stay together.
It took me a little while to figure out but if you're trying to line up multiple crosshairs for more than one potentiometer, click on the 'View' menu and select 'Snap to Grid', then just count the same number of clicks in between each crosshair with the arrow key. Viola, perfectly aligned pots! There might be a fancier way to do it, but I don't know it. ;)
Hope that helps. :)
Because these types of mockups are basically all math, most of the time I align all of my objects by changing their coordinates, but the Align options in the Window tab are stupid easy to use. Pick all of your objects, align them centered both ways, and then group them if you like. Grouping objects like knobs that are perfectly spaced, will keep them from becoming misaligned and make them easier to move around. Shift+G will group objects, and double clicking a group will let you adjust objects and settings within that group without affecting the object's grouping.