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Help needed on how to create battenburgs for ambulances
Hi I’m new to this forum and new to the business doing this as a hobby and becoming a small business
Basically i need a bit of software design advice. I’m currently using Corel 6 and winPCSIGN
I have recently purchased Impact Vehicle Library (current edition) and want to create batttenburgs down the side of a car in effect to make it into an ambulance. (Most of my contacts are in the medical field)
I’m currently playing around with software using a discovery 2 and making 7 panels per side (yellow and green) which will be top of door under the window and middle of door – im making each panel about 10mm smaller than the line
Has anyone got any tips to create these panels as its so time consuming
What i have done so far is made 10mm boxes and placed them across the panels for guidance. with straight lines i have used a normal line but curves i have copied and pasted from another image of the discovery and brought it forward 10mm – i have grouped each panel (i.e complete wing) so it can be cut however as you can see from the front wing the compete wing would be 3 colours (the first change of colour by the wheel arch the second by the indicator)
There has got to be a quicker easier way to do this and get the curves spot on and be able to cut one panel at a time to avoid wastage –
i really hope i am making sense here and any advice would be greatful
(i did try b4 throwing in the towel lol)
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8 Replies
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btw the red would be the cut line
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I will be brutally honest here, you can forget looking for an easy route in doing this.
My company has spent years creating its own reflective kits and i can tell you it can take a full day just doing the rear of a single van. and that’s with our experience.forget vehicle templates for this type of thing. no templates are anywhere close to being accurate enough. you need to work from real photographs, on screen digitising, scaling up, changing, tweaking….
producing live templates, fitting them, then taking back to the computer to continue to tweak, alter, re-size and more. more templates, more test fittings, back to PC and repeat…one important factor that you need to know is you are designing flat on-screen.
then trying to apply to a 3-dimensional object. it just doesn’t work…as i say, i am not trying to knock what your trying to do, just giving you it how it is.
by all means, if you have the business for it, then keep at it. but software templates etc are not going to help you achieve this sort of thing.p.s.
seeing as i have helped you… 😀
it would be good to give an intro post, post a proper name and possibley a picture? 😀 -
Hi
second what Rob says, you would probably be better getting into contact with one of the specialists firms that supply the kits as if you are thinking of using diamond grade etc you will need to be able to seal the edges etcKev
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Yup. Tried doing a rear of an Astra van once and that was very difficult. Kudos to those that have put the hours in to doing Chapter 8 kits etc.
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I’m afraid it is as per how Rob says… I used to do a lot of one-of ambulances for various private companies, every one involved measurements, vinyl templates, fitting, measuring, removing, new template, fitting etc. you can spend several hours and £40 in materials before you even get to cut the real thing.
most vehicles like the disco will already be on William Smiths catalogue.. as will a number of my one-of designs!
however, if it doesn’t need to be chapter 8, ie. not for highway emergency use, then you just have to do it the hard way!
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Hi
As the above posts you can’t really go off the outline CD, a flat 2D drawing is never going to give you accurate vinyl to fit the real world 3D object.
I’d continue to design it as you are and then pen plot it to paper, align it on the vehicle and mark up where its over, short, angles different etc. then back to your software and edit the vector paths accordingly. Then be prepared to repeat the process 2-3 more times as you gradually get closer and closer.
I’d concentrate on the overall shape of the vinyl and slice and dice it up into the 2-tone colours wants the perimeter is correct.
It took us about 4-5 hours yesterday to make an exact rear chevron kit template for a Transit Custom (and I think that was fast for a 100% accurate template) – worth it as we’ll use it many many times though.
If its a one off then I’d recommend buying them in.
Cheers
Macky -
Hello,
Glad I saw this thread!
Been talking to a customer who wants this sort of work done, and it’s been a bit of a head-scratcher. I think he will need to buy a kit from someone who has spent the time and effort to design, trim, check, re-design, measure and fettle it to a workable end result.
Fair play if you are prepared to do it, and I can at least help with the fitting! -
Much easier and they are sealed and fit first time
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