How To Scan Enclosure?

[Schappy]

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.

[DougH]

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.

[Pakaloabob]

@ 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.

[Schappy]

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?

[DougH]

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... She's the graphic artist.

I could never figure out Photoshop. It completely bewilders me...

[Schappy]

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.

[DC9V]

@ 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:

Replace 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 )

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.

[hday]

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.



Right Click Save This Link for Ai Template

[Schappy]

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?

[philbinator1]

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. 

[hday]

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.