CP layout

[solfood]

I'm ready to start drilling the holes and install the hardware.  What's the best way to layout a control panel?  I wish I remembered something from mechanical drawing in high school.  I had it first bell and surfed a lot in the morning and missed it frequently.  So where do I start?  

[HaRuMaN]

Well first off... what kind of games are you going to be playing?

[solfood]

I guess I should have explained myself a little better...

I have 3 CPs.  2 Smaller ones on either end of the cocktail for vertical games and 1 Large CP on the long side for horizontal games.  The two small panels willl both have 1 eight way joystick and 4 buttons and the big panel will have two eightways with 6 buttons apiece, 1 and 2 player buttons and two coin buttons.  Now how do I go about laying this on the control panel.  I have a straightedge, compass etc.  How much space should I leave between buttons for instance?  

[Blakey]

Join my club! (See the feedback req on cocktail plans for my thread)


I've laid this out in CAD (Intellicad, it's free and uses autocad files) for my cabinet, same CP idea as you but with a trackball as well.

You can get stick and button dimensions from your supplier, in my case www.ultimarc.com, or try http://www.happcontrols.com if you're using their gear. I have 38mm from button centre to centre, which leaves 2mm between the button trim rings. ~83mm between stick centre and button centre.

Everyone else seems to use visio and there's templates around, but if you have CAD I can send you my files.

As far as the layout before cut goes, a 100% printout stuck onto the panel would help you out, failing that you'll have to get down and dirty with a ruler and marker.