What tools do you use for designing front panels?

[ivan747]

Hi!

I'm planning to design a front panel and was wondering what software tools you use to design these.

I once did a front (and rear) panel on AutoCAD, since I had a student license. I then printed the designs, laminated the paper and glued the paper to the panel using 3M 300LSE tape. AutoCAD has the perfect support for making everything dimensionally correct, and has some support for colors and such. But I no longer have a license.

I tried LibreCAD but before investing my time learning it, I wanted to see what other people used out there.

I also once designed something "mechanical" in Inkscape. It was sort of an RC airplane made out of foam board. Inkscape was nice because you could do a lot of design on it but you can feel its limitations when it comes to making things of an exact dimension and alignment (there's not as much grid support as there is in AutoCAD). Inkscape was designed for no grids, and AutoCAD is the opposite.

[WastelandTek]

https://www.frontpanelexpress.com/

[alm]

https://www.frontpanelexpress.com/

If you are willing to be tied to one (two) vendors that is. I have used LibreCAD (formerly QCad) for my rather modest needs. You can turn off the grid if you do not want to be constraint. But I often find myself typing in coordinates since I know the exact dimensions and sometimes calculate the best spacing (e.g. binding posts at 19.05mm spacing centered on the front panel).

[HighVoltage]

I have been using Corel Draw for years and it has worked well

[ahbushnell]

Solidworks

[MarkS]

I haven't designed a front panel (yet), but my first thought, before I fully read your post, was Inkscape. Granted, the grid system is difficult to work with, but it does work well once you learn the software.

[voltsandjolts]

For quick front panels that can look surprisingly professional I use Inkscape, then laser print onto Avery Heavy Duty labels:

https://www.avery.co.uk/search#?term=heavy%20duty&from=0&size=20&content_group=product

Tip: Draw the centre-point of all drilled holes so you can stick the label to your panel and use it as the drill guide too.

[Rerouter]

Avery Heavy Duty labels:

Have you had any luck using them for front panels with buttons? I've been trying to find a stick on label for cheap custom matrix keypads.

[alm]

I imagine Inkscape is easier to learn, but I find a real CAD program much nicer. In LibreCAD you can define circles from two points on the edge, center and radius, center and one point on the edge, tangential to other circles, etc. You can also snap the cursor to edges, corners, centers, middle of lines. You can assign a default color per layer.  And you can define any point to define coordinates relative to (very useful if you want precise distances, like connectors on a fixed pitch). All these make it much nicer to use for CAD work once you get used to it.

The interface is quite different from a general graphics program, although in my opinion the interface got quite a bit nicer in version 2.1 (textual description that says 'Center, Radius' instead of often cryptic icons).

[voltsandjolts]

@Rerouter

Haven't tried them for keypad decals but I reckon they would work. Very durable.

[alexanderbrevig]

Fusion 360, excellent for construction of both 2D and 3D. 

[IanJ]

For info.........If you can use AutoCad then you will feel immediately at home with DraftSight as the commands and operation are 99% the same.....and there's a free version available. Can open and save .dwg's...........It's a no brainer to those without AutoCad licenses!

https://www.3ds.com/products-services/draftsight-cad-software/free-download/

Comparison:
http://www.cadoasis.com/autocad-vs-draftsight/

Ian.

[Gary.M]

Best Autocad equivalent in my book is Qcad. You can use the free version or pay a little for more.

Sent from my x600 using Tapatalk

[alm]

LibreCAD is a fork of QCad and so is very similar in features. I like the LibreCAD UI better. Plus QCad is no longer packaged in most Linux distributions.

[ivan747]

I imagine Inkscape is easier to learn, but I find a real CAD program much nicer. In LibreCAD you can define circles from two points on the edge, center and radius, center and one point on the edge, tangential to other circles, etc. You can also snap the cursor to edges, corners, centers, middle of lines. You can assign a default color per layer.  And you can define any point to define coordinates relative to (very useful if you want precise distances, like connectors on a fixed pitch). All these make it much nicer to use for CAD work once you get used to it.

The interface is quite different from a general graphics program, although in my opinion the interface got quite a bit nicer in version 2.1 (textual description that says 'Center, Radius' instead of often cryptic icons).

Yes, exactly. The most important limitations I have found on Inkscape are the lack of snap-to-edge or center (or any snapping at all) and the inability to alter shapes while sticking to the grid (this was critical). Maybe I didn't figure the last one out. Another very important limitation is that it doesn't have what I will call a "matrix" function like AutoCAD. On AutoCAD you can arrange multiple copies of a single object spaced a certain distance apart, say a 4x4 row of buttons. It also works on arcs. Think, for example, the range selector on a multimeter. With AutoCAD you can rearrange the "positions" and make them start at any angle with any spacing all at once.

AutoCAD, on the other side, doesn't have a rich support for fills, gradients etc.

But that's to be expected, they were made for different purposes and instrument panel design seems to require a little bit from both worlds.

I suspect that professionals use a CAD software, rather than a vector graphics software, judging from how their work looks like.

In regards to the software, I'll be trying LibreCAD. Seems something useful to learn for home use, along with GNU Octave.

-Ivan

[alm]

I would expect the tooling and mechanical design to be done in a CAD program. The silkscreen/labels might be done by an artist in a vector graphics program. Things like text rendering is often quite limited in CAD programs compared to something like Illustrator.

GNU Octave should be fairly straight-forward if you are familiar with MATLAB, since the language is largely compatible. Obviously not all toolboxes are available or work the same. If you are not familiar with MATLAB, then some of the tutorials for MATLAB may be partly applicable. The MATLAB language is convenient for linear algebra (who'd have thought for a program called matrix laboratory), but is a weird mix with elements from C and other languages.