Support Forum

Hello Glenn,

Thank you for contacting us regarding Front Panel Designer.

You can indeed measure between two points (assuming they are reference points of an object). The easiest way is to set the origin to one object, then examine the properties of the other.

To set the origin to an object, press the "N" key on the keyboard. A supplemental five button tool bar will appear on the top row of buttons. You would want to select the center button "Specify origin based on the reference point of an object".

Once you click this option, then click on the reference point of your first object. The blue origin cross will move to that point.

Now that the origin is reset, right click on the object of interest and select "Move". The X value will be the horizontal distance from the origin, the Y value will be the vertical distance from the origin, and the Length will be the absolute distance between the two objects.

Other than that, you can calculate the distance between two objects using their positions as well, but this take a little more time.

Let us know if we can provide any additional assistance.

Sincerely,

Paul Birkeland

Front Panel Express

Customer Service Manager

Posted By: Paul Birkeland on Aug 30, 2011 10:00PM

Thanks for the reply, but that won't tell me the distance between the corners of two squares, or the distance between the edge of two objects, only the distance from center to center of two objects.

Besides, seems like a lot of work for something that should be simple. But thanks for listening.

Posted By: Glenn Berden on Aug 30, 2011 10:32PM

Hello again Glenn,

Thank you for contacting us regarding your suggestion.

Though we do not have dynamic guides (or construction lines) in our software, we do have a tool for aligning multiple objects.

Rather than trying to do this tool justice in a forum post, I would recommend reviewing this newsletter which provides a step-by-step guide on using this tool:

Align/Distribute Newsletter

Let us know if you have any additional questions or suggestions.

Sincerely,

Paul Birkeland

Front Panel Express

Customer Service Manager

Posted By: Paul Birkeland on Aug 30, 2011 10:08PM

Yah I know how to use that tool. Construction lines help in much more than simply lining object up.

Sometimes panel setup is more about esthetics than symmetrical. The construction line can be a guide line but not necessarily want to line the object up.

But thanks

Posted By: Glenn Berden on Aug 30, 2011 10:55PM

Hello again Glenn,

Thank you for contacting us with your suggestion for Front Panel Designer.

We are considering the idea of a Design Layer that could be used for notes, footprints of parts, and specifications in a future release.

We will notify our developers of your suggestion.

Sincerely,

Paul Birkeland

Front Panel Express

Customer Service Manager

Posted By: Paul Birkeland on Aug 30, 2011 11:33PM

I think it's frequently necessary to indicate dimensions on any display or printout of a drawing. I would like to see some way to add printed dimensions to a design.

Posted By: Carey Fisher on Dec 14, 2011 08:35PM

I will express interest in this feature as well. It would be useful for keep-out zones.

Posted By: Jason Meeusen on Feb 22, 2012 11:28PM

Did anything ever happen with this idea? I also like Carey Fishers' idea about showing dimensions. We'd like this for our documentation.

Posted By: Tom Paden on Aug 15, 2017 05:01PM

Hi Tom,

Unfortunately that is not a feature that our developers have implemented and it will not be available going forward.

Hopefully one day it can be.

Posted By: Adrian on Aug 15, 2017 10:29PM

Hello Chris,

Thank you for contacting us with your question.

We can indeed drill and tap the edges of our material. I will explain how to do so with an example below:

Let us say you have a panel that is 100mm wide and 200mm high with a 6mm thickness, and we will call it panel abc.fpd. In the Remarks for Production in the front panel properties, I would leave some notes that the edges of this panel will be tapped.

To tap the bottom edge, I would make a new design that is 100mm wide by 6mm high by 10mm thick, and check "use customer provided material". I would call this panel abc_bottom_edge_tapping.fpd.

I would then lay my holes out. If the layout was not completely symmetric, I would leave some notes in the Remarks for Production to help properly reference this file to the original panel.

The process could be repeated four times to make:

abc_top_edge_tapping.fpd (100mm wide by 6mm high)

abc_left_edge_tapping.fpd (6mm wide by 200mm high)

abc_right_edge_tapping.fpd (6mm wide by 200mm high)

You could also combine the top/bottom and left/right edges into one file if the hole pattern was the same, and we strongly recommend this if at all possible.

Do remember to upload all the necessary files to your order before submitting it online.

We look forward to integrating this process into our software in a future release to remove the requirement of multiple files.

If you have any additional questions regarding this process, please do not hesitate to let us know.

Kindest Regards,

Paul Birkeland

Posted By: Paul Birkeland on Aug 16, 2011 08:35PM

Hello Carey,

Thank you for contacting us regarding your question.

You can use the Insert Rectangular Cutout function to define your slot, assigning the corner radius to be twice the height; this will provide the cutout that you need.

Feel free to allow this cutout to overlap the edge of the panel, as this leads to the cleanest finished product.

We do not recommend overlapping a drill hole with a rectangular cutout to obtain these results, as getting the intersection between these two objects arranged perfectly is deceptively difficult.

Let us know if you have any additional questions.

Kindest Regards,

Paul Birkeland

Posted By: Paul Birkeland on Aug 12, 2011 05:51PM