Support Forum

Hi,

Front Panel Designer does not support the infinity symbol. Each font has its on set of special characters, however, the infinity symbol is not included.

I know that a rotated '8' looks not the same, so I designed something in Corel Draw and imported it as hpgl file.

FPD file with infinity symbol

The size can by changed by the scale factor and you can have it bolder by picking a larger tool.

Posted By: Diane Haensel on Dec 22, 2009 03:07AM

Hello Greg,

Certainly, this is part of our technical control of submitted fpd files. We check if the designs are machinable and also keep an eye on things like display fit, enclosure fit etc.

If you want us to focus on something in particular, you may want to leave a note in the 'panel properties'

There is no charge for that, this is our customer service.

Best regards,

Diane

Posted By: Diane Haensel on Dec 14, 2009 08:02PM

Greg,

One thing you can do to check a critical fit is print the design 1:1 and then 'fit' the part to the print. Or, if both parts are a FPE design, you can can print both parts and fit paper to paper. A very good sanity check before ordering.

We do this all the time, needing to fit connectors or boards to cutouts and mounting holes. Sometimes we glue the design printouts to thin cardboard, use an exacto knife to make the cutouts, and fit everything together to create a full scale mockup of the design before ordering. This really helps ensure getting it right the first time.

I use FPE to create full 19" rackmount enclosures for in-house test equipment. Every enclosure part is made with FPE. It is a fantastic service.

Posted By: DAVE DAVIS on Mar 22, 2010 06:45PM

Hello,

Another option would be to create the design with a vector illustration program such as Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator. Import the engravings using Front Panel Designer as hpgl file (file extension .plt). A detailed description of how to generate the HPGL's can be found in our Tips & Tricks section on our website.

Posted By: Leland Savage on Nov 10, 2009 07:37PM

Hello,

A rough estimate for an enclosure with those dimensions would be approximately $500.

Please let us know if you have any other questions. We would be happy to assist you with designing the enclosure.

Posted By: Leland Savage on Nov 05, 2009 12:49AM

Hi Ken,

How does your infill process actually work? It looks like a paint fill by plotter pen?

The machining of the panels is highly automated but the infill process is all done by hand.

If I have one engraved area with two different infill colors, do I need some border/separation between them (i.e. draw them as two shapes right next to each other) or is overlap okay?

Separation between areas with different infill colors is required. We recommend .2mm to .5mm (.008" to .02")

How large an area can you infill? If I wanted a background color different than your anodization offerings and if I infill the whole piece, what limits are there?

The max. area for infill depends on the design of the engraving objects. However, the infill process is not meant to be used for backgrounds. If you can't find the color of your choice in our material selection, you can provide already painted, powder coated, or anodized material to us for machining.

Posted By: Diane Haensel on Oct 30, 2009 05:58PM

Yes, we can offer a 1mm thick panel in a natural finish or we can work with another non-ferrous provided material

Posted By: Leland Savage on Oct 26, 2009 06:52PM