advice on drafting a cp for drilling/artwork?

[aldub516]

Hey all, thanks for the help as always. Today i had a question pertaining to designing a cp top in a program, and printing it out, both for drilling and future artwork. My first few builds i just did by hand. I printed the templates from slagstick, measured and leveled them, taped them down and drilled.. then just added admin buttons and such by simple measurements to line everything up. Sadly, i did the same thing on my newest build, but thus far only did each 6 button setup for 2 players. While i have no problem doing it this way, it does not allow me to apply accurate artwork, for example, arrows around the joystick or outlines around buttons. Im the king of successfully doing things ass backwards, so for now im going to measure my cp and lay it out in photo shop, then make reference measurements such as the top, side and bottom of a button, and try to get it as accurate as possible. My question is, whats the proper way to do a layout in proper scale in a program? I currently am learning sketchup, and am pretty good on photoshop.. How would i import one of the .png templates into photoshop or sketchup and be sure i am retaining the proper scale? If i can properly measure the buttons ive already drilled and get them in place, i should be able to match up the template,and then continue from there. I just am not to sure how to best import the templates into a program, what program to use, and any methods or notes for retaining proper scale, and adding artwork. I love those bubble looking outlines around buttons and such. This is going to be an adventure for sure..

[aldub516]

also, maybe a simpler question. I did sketch the shape of my cp in sketchup. All the angles and size is correct. Is there a simple way to export the one single board out to photoshop in the same scale? I guess at some point that is whats done, after all the holes and such are added

[Ond]

I use Visio for CP cutting plans, easy to use, scales with precision for printing.

[DaOld Man]

I use Visio for CP cutting plans, easy to use, scales with precision for printing.

Is there a free version of Visio? I would like to try it before spending a huge amount.

[Ond]

I use Visio for CP cutting plans, easy to use, scales with precision for printing.

Is there a free version of Visio? I would like to try it before spending a huge amount.

There is no free version that I know of (I get mine through my work) however there are free alternatives.  yEd is a free similar application.  I'm going to have a play with that to see how it compares to Visio.  There is also Lucidchart which is an online Visio alternative, it has a free lite version I'll check out as well.  The main thing I like about these type of programs is the snap to grid/object options and accurate scaling.  Since CP designs mainly deal with simple circles, boxes and shapes, graphing software works really well.

[mgb]

I've designed my CPs with PaintShop Pro X4.
I have photoshop and others but I'm just most comfortable with Paintshop Pro.

I'm not very good at explaining this but
To do everything to scale, you need the reference.
Set your drawing up to be 300 pixels per inch.
Then if in that drawing you have a square drawn that is 300 pixels by 300 pixels, you'll know its 1" square.

If you're going to draw a cp that is 24" x 8", then your workspace is gonna need to be 7200 px X 2400 px.
And printing will need to be 1:1.
If you've already done some drilling and now need to make up the art, you will need to do some measuring and experimenting to get a base line.


You can export to 2d from Sketchup.
To get it to scale, you may just have to scale it to a reference within photoshop.

[JDFan]

As MGB mentioned for measurements you just adjust using the Pixels setting you are using (ie. 300 PPI or DPI would mean 300 pixels per inch so if you want a normal size circle for the buttons @ 1 1/8 inch you want a circular brush setting of 338 pixels ( 300 = 1 inch and 38 ( actually 37.5 but can't do 1/2 pixels) = 1/8th inch)

So in PS just set your brush tool to 338 pixels and you have it ready to add your 1 1/8inch button holes where you want them with a single mouse click.