Support Forum

Hi Nick,

I am sorry for the inconvenience you have encountered with FPD.

Our IT people are already informed and I will let you know as soon as I hear back.

Could you please give me details about your operating system and the access violation (Zugriffsverletzung)?

Again, we apologize for this problem.

Diane

Posted By: Diane Haensel on Dec 30, 2009 08:42PM

I have a Mac, so I am running FPD in a Windows XP virtual machine using VMWare Fusion. The OS is up to date.

Sometimes I get the Zugriffsverletzung access violation and sometimes I get the Ausgewahlter error message that loosely translates to "you selected the wrong printer".

Having gone back into the program on this PC I have realized that I can not place a new object either, I can select the tool but when i click to place nothing happens. Previously I was just trying to modify an existing drawing and hadn't noticed.

Posted By: Nick Podolak on Dec 30, 2009 10:32PM

It has something to do with the printer. When you copy something, you automatically generate a wmf file on the clipboard. This wmf file uses some printer settings. Since you probably don't have a printer installed on your virtual machine, it won't let you copy.

The next version of Front Panel Designer will have a better solution for that. In the meantime we suggest to install just any standard printer on your system. Copy and paste should work then.

Thank you for pointing that out. And again, we are sorry for the inconvenience.

Posted By: Diane Haensel on Jan 05, 2010 01:28AM

I changed my default printer to a different unit and the copy paste functionality has returned.

Posted By: Nick Podolak on Jan 06, 2010 04:49PM

Hello Landon,

We apologize for this inconvenience. A customer of our sister company in Europe experienced just recently the same problem. Here is what was suggested in their forum.

I am sorry, that you have this problem. Is it possible, that you launched the FPD the first from the setup as another user? If you start it the first time as a new user it doesn't find the language settings and falls back to the standard language (which is German). I admit, that this is not a very good behavior and will be changed in the next version.

For now you have to change the language for every user manually. So please to the following steps:

* Start the FPD

* Press Ctrl+E

* Click on "Global"

* There you have a drop down box "Sprache" where you could choose your language.

Please let me know if it worked.

Best regards,

Kai Schaeffer

Please let me know if you have any problems to navigate through FPD to find the language setup.

Best regards,

Diane

Posted By: Diane Haensel on Dec 22, 2009 11:21PM

Diane,

This was exactly the solution I needed. I had logged in as administrator to install the program.

Thanks!

Landon

Posted By: Landon Solomon on Dec 30, 2009 05:21PM

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