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control panel project question

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dkersten:

The reason I chose to use illustrator for the layout is because it allows you to manually enter dimensions of each object, so it was exact.  In photoshop you can set guides and draw your circles and stuff but it could be off by a millimeter or two and you may not notice.  Also if you have a bleed set up in photoshop, your guides will be referenced off the bleed edge, not the edge of your layout line for your control panel, which makes it that much harder to place something in the right spot just using the rulers in photoshop.  Certainly not a "deal breaker" but I found it useful.

dubstylee:

Thanks for all of the info guys.  I have seen the slagcoin layouts before, those are very helpful.  Is there anything similar for a 3" trackball?  Or should I draw a square the size of the mounting plate and use that?  I am trying to decide how to handle the mounting plate.  I am going to get a flat top one, so I am thinking of recessing it to be flush with the top of the panel, and then cover it with the artwork.

lamprey:

I use Visio for a bunch of stuff, so I'm comfortable using that for layouts where sizing matters. If you are familiar or comfortable with Illustrator you can pretty much to the same thing. But, I think Visio is well suited for that type of task. You can also save out as 300 dpi TIFF or PDF to import into Photoshop to make sure the artwork aligns properly before printing (or to help layout the design).

eds1275:

I use Gimp. I started to because it was free, but then it has really grown on me. It's pretty powerful and can export to photoshop and a bunch of other formats.

shponglefan:

I mainly use Photoshop for control panels if doing illustration-style art as part of the design.  If all vector art, then I'll use Illustrator.

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