[Simon Strom]

Thanks Jack! :smiles:

I mostly use Cheetah 3d, but lately I’ve started using MODO. Cheetah is a Mac only app, so if you are on Windows or LInux, it won’t be an option. It is really easy and pretty powerful. Only around $100 and sometimes it goes on sale. I’ve used Blender some too, but the interface isn’t my favorite. Although I’ve started learning the keyboard shortcuts, and that’s where the real speed and power of Blender comes in. I’ve slowly been working at it for about 6 years. Not constantly, but every lit bit helps.

https://www.cheetah3d.com/

What application do you usually use? Is it mostly sign work as well?

Here’s a new one from last week done in MODO. We’re redesigning our conference room and do several tests in 3d to get better idea of which way to go.

Cheers!

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[Simon Strom]

Thanks Jamie for the reply,

I’ll see if I can get away with the lower resolution. I’ve already suggested my client have a small sample printed so she can make sure the pattern and color are what she wants.

Even at 300dpi the file size wouldn’t be horrible. At 1000dpi the bitmap would be several gigs without tiling. All the other art on the sign will be vector art, so the resolution won’t matter for those elements.

[Simon Strom]

Oh yes definitely!

One of the harder things for me to wrap my head around earlier in my graphics career was to match colors for the printer and not for onscreen. We have a different print out book using a CMYK array for each printer on site. Usually we are given a paint swatch specification and then will match the paint swatch from a fan book or chip to the CMYK book for whichever printer the file will be output on.

I have a 5k iMac that has super saturated colors and then also a cheaper HP monitor as a secondary that is a lot muddier. I don’t use a calibrator, but I do know they can be really useful to try and maintain accurate colors. Especially if you’re trying to match onscreen for printing bitmap images.

[Simon Strom]

Very cool stuff indeed! I sadly haven’t picked up a brush in years.

[Simon Strom]

Thanks Simon, it’s greatly appreciated!

[Simon Strom]

Thanks!

Some of it I’m a bit slow as I’m still learning as I go. The modeling part is relatively quick. Some of the modeling I do from scratch and then there are a few parts that I get a 3d file that was already modeled by one of our Industrial Designer / Engineers. Mostly for the injection molded plastic caps. I’d say the modeling usually is anywhere from 2 – 6 hours typically. This includes all the texturing and applying materials and lighting.

The animations can take a few days to get down. If I had experience doing them more often, setting up the animation would probably only take a few hours. It’s a lot of trial and error as I’m mostly teaching myself, with the help of the application forum and YouTube that is. Some of the sign products I’ve already modeled. So it makes it easy to reuse them again when needed.

The actual rendering can take a while. I think some of those took around 12 to 14 hours each. It would go faster if I had an Nvidia card running CUDA, but I’m jut using an iMac. Which has a decent enough video card, but not really optimized for rendering. I only do a few videos every few months though. So leaving them to render overnight isn’t too bad. I’ll just leave the machine on and hope the power didn’t go out.

Hope everything is going well for you these days. The wife and I are wanting to make it over to Britain hopefully in the next year or two. A good friend of mine and his fiancé just made a two week trip to Ireland and loved it. I haven’t been back since 1996. So I’d love another trip.

[Simon Strom]

Personally I wouldn’t eat the cost of the fonts if it doesn’t make sense to depending on how much they are paying you. I would think that if it’s the companies brand guidelines, that they already have a license for both font families. I am surprised they can’t (or won’t) provide you with the font. Unless this is a speculative order? So I can’t see how it would be wrong for you to set what they need using their font. Of course it wouldn’t be legal for you to use the font for another customer without buying them. I do have a lot of experience following brand guidelines. Sometimes we do buy a font if the job is worth enough overall. If you think you will do enough of the franchises, then maybe it is worth it. On other occasions we charge the customer for the font they specified if they don’t have a licensed copy. So it all just depends on the situation. I’d still say it’s pretty weird they set a whole brand guideline without owning the fonts.

I’ve been in the same situation before where I’ve done some drawings and all seems dandy until it goes through another review from someone higher up. A lot of times I’m not even aware of a brand identity guideline until after an initial set of drawings are done. I would 100% get them to sign off on all specs though since their specs don’t match any real world materials that you can tell as far as the Avery vinyl codes they’ve supplied. We have that very issue right now with a customer that has different Sherwin-Williams paint colors that differ depending on the floor level. We’ve had a tough time getting them to verify exactly what each is suppose to be and what floor level they go with.

I do have SCALA and some DIN fonts, but I don’t have the Pro versions. I agree with Gil, if you can pull line art out of a file, then that is a possibility. Sometimes there aren’t enough characters to get all that you need from doing that though. Someone that has the fonts may be able to outline the glyphs for you. I don’t know about the legality of that where you are located though. In the U.S. typically the font (program) itself has a copyright, but the outlined characters do not.

Sorry for the long winded reply, hopefully you can sort it out one way or another.

[Simon Strom]

We have a few of them. I don’t know a lot about them other than setting up the art file that our production department does the pre-press preparation. I do know that they have nearly knocked out much need for silk-screening any more though. I agree it’s definitely where the industry probably is heading more or less. I don’t think I can say much about the exact details of what we do.

You can check out a gallery of photos that show the outcome (just click through the flip book):
http://www.apcosigns.com/elevate.html

It’s difficult to even tell that these weren’t screen printed. It allows us to print pretty much any bitmap texture. I think the speed and cleanup (environmental impact also) is much better than screening.

Sorry, I wish I could divulge more about it. Good luck with your decision. I’m sure someone else on here may chime in as well.

edit:
I guess I should have mentioned that some of the solid background colors are still done in a spray booth though.

[Simon Strom]

Nice job. I like the yellow on black.

[Simon Strom]

quote Chris Windebank:

Luciano Wide Bold

Wow thank you Chris!

You are a true scholar and a gentlemen.

Cheers :appl:

[Simon Strom]

That is ridiculous! Not sure how people think it’s ok that they can just expect work for free? I’m sure they would have a problem if they didn’t get paid for work done.

This one takes the cake though and it’s something I’ve never seen before in my near 20 years of doing graphics. Last week I had a client send me some reference drawings of signs they drew in Microsoft Excel!

My mind has now totally been melted.

[Simon Strom]

Hmmmmmm …. not enough guns.

(:) (:) (:) (:) (:) (:) 😮

[Simon Strom]

Hard to tell exactly, but this might just be thin Phenolic / Novacryl applied to the face. I’d opt for "Raster Braille" (do a Google search) though if you don’t want to do a full photopolymer. I think the small applied bands on the sign face don’t look as nice, although they are cheaper to make. Hope this helps some.

[Simon Strom]

Hi,

What exactly are your cutting needs? Do you do strictly caste vinyl or do you also do printing on vinyl (such as for car wraps etc.)?

Others can probably be of more help as I just do the graphic layout portion of the job. Lots of people use Corel Draw which hasn’t been available on a Mac for some time. Could maybe be run under Parallels or VM Ware, but not ideal set up really. Illustrator and Photoshop may be the way to go unless you get a dedicated software for sign layout and cutting. Some plotters may need special plug ins to work with Adobe apps though. I’ll leave it to others to mention dedicated sign apps, as I don’t use them and I don’t know which ones are Mac compatible.

Good luck with sorting it out!

[Simon Strom]

My CS5 (iMac 24" i5 4Gb DDR3 RAM) keeps running out of memory. So Basically it’s crashing on me. There are a lot of pages with a lot of dimension lines in the most recent file Ive been working on. FreeHand MX never choked that bad on me though. would like to put more RAM in, but I’m at the mercy of my company on that front.

[Simon Strom]

It can be expensive I guess, but we use FileMaker for job tracking. It’s almost strictly for database though (newer versions may have envoicing … ?). Do you need server support / web access? There are also a few envoicing apps that may cover you. I’m on a Mac so the big ones I know are Billings & iBiz. I’m sure a Windows user may chime in if you need something on that platform. There’s also Bento which is kind of a light weight version of FileMaker (made by the same people).

[Simon Strom]

I do this all the time at work. Of course it’s easier with a straight on photo. Sometimes I don’t get that of course. I typically straighten the photo up as much as I can in photoshop and correct warping if any. Then I bring it into FreeHand. It can make it easier to use a custom scale (which I think Coel supports also, but not Illustrator). I like to draw the target shape in perspective in illustrator and then use the free transform tool to force the art to that shape. Sorry I’m at home. If I have time I can try and do a quick screen cast tomorrow if you think you still needs some pointers. But I do the same thing as Jill. I import the photo into the vector app. Probably mostly because I more comfortable with that work flow.

[Simon Strom]

Really weird! I swear that looks like a University of Tennessee Logo.

http://images.hometownsevier.com/wp-con … /09/ut.jpg

[Simon Strom]

Had similar problems. Have had a few break ins at home and also had a few hard drives go bad at work. Recreated a few files from PDFs in my email. Luckily my work also uses an ofF site tape back up. That’s saved my bacon a few times. I do use Dropbox for my weekly work. That’s mainly for when I’m sick it’s easier to work from home. Sorry to hear about the theft.

[Simon Strom]

Those are usually used for green screen filming. http://www.chromakeysuit.com/

Always Sunny in Philly:
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/7b456f … velcrocity

[Simon Strom]

No problem! Hope you got it sorted out.

[Simon Strom]

It’ll differ depending on your printer, ink and what paper you’re using also. We always just use the CMYK in the Pantone book as a starting point. Typically we use the solid spot swatches to match our print and then adjust the CMYK until it gets close. It’s a pain, but gives a better color match.

One of the owners here actually found some script that would create a CMYK chart that made an array of all the CMYK color combinations (I’ll have to ask him later where he got if anyone is interested. He’s out today.). They printed all these pages out on our printer. That way, when trying to match a CMYK to a Pantone Spot for our printer it would be easier to just scan through the whole chart and then use whatever CMYK color is closest. Of course if the job is to be sent out to an offset litho etc., it’s still better to specify the Pantone Spot as they’ll use an actual premixed ink (or their own CMYK values).

[Simon Strom]

Yep, I’ve been a big fan of Stone Roses. Great band! I’ve actually got an Epiphone WildKat that’s similar to those. Mines a sunburst instead of the yellow like in the photo. Some people talk crap about Epiphone being a Gibson knock-off (which they actually are now owned by Gibson anyway). I’ve owned Les Pauls in the past and I say the Epiphone that I have stands up to that instrument in every way even though it’s about a 1/4 of the price of a Gibson. Good question about how the wrap might change the sound though. Keep us updated. I’d love to see the finished wrap.

[Simon Strom]

It’s a little hard to tell exactly which one because of the skewing. You can look at a few here on Identifont though. May be something close enough?

http://www.identifont.com/list?3+ITC%20 … DU+8+3Z3+8

[Simon Strom]

I think it could also depend on the end use. If you are doing graphics for items that will only be seen on screen (web, cell phone), then RGB would be fine. Printing used derivations of CMYK as others have said, you can get out of gamut colors working in RGB. Typically you’ll get a warning though if you have out of gamut colors. One caveat may be that some software applications have excellent RGB to CMYK color space conversion or even the printer RIP is doing the conversion. I’ve talked to some photographers that have a total system of color management. Calibrating the monitor is one major thing they do. I usually just do a basic calibration of my Mac monitor with the built in tools. You could opt to go for using a spectrometer, such as a Spyder Pro http://spyder.datacolor.com/ or a few people prefer the Color Munki http://www.xrite.com/product_overview.aspx?ID=1513 I’ve heard that the Pantone Huey isn’t all that great. Ambient lighting and what surround the workstation also can effect color. Neutral grays work best.

[Simon Strom]

I agree with Harry. That’s a great place to find blueprints.

Not exactly blueprints, but you can find a lot of 3d modeled cars at the Google Warehouse as well. Just open them in SketchUp and then set your camera angle.

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/ … revstart=0

[Simon Strom]

Yeah, I think it’s possible to just share folders but might be a PIA. You can get the Server version of Lion for $50. I believe you could run that as your own personal desktop and as a server at the same time. The server software are actually add-on apps from Apple to the standard version of Lion. Just so you know it’s not a situation where you choose one over the other.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/server/

[Simon Strom]

Warren, are you setting up a server also then or are you planning on using some other method for worker to access the art files? Just curious.

[Simon Strom]

Sorry, I should have looked up the RAID you mentioned. If you need a lot of storage and fast I/O write times that might be a good option. Especially with the Thunderbolt port.

Hrmmmm 4TB! That’s a lot of movies! 😉

[Simon Strom]

I’ve never used a RAID set-up, but from two IT people I know they personally aren’t fond of them. I think they are typically used for server storage and for backing up files. There are a few different types of RAID though. I’m not fully aware of why they don’t like using RAID. I guess there is some complexity in using it for one thing. It can make accessing data quicker from the server with a RAID set up. Our IT department uses an off site tape back up in case we have a fire or some other disaster that could destroy all of our files. It runs a few times a day. I suppose it could really depend on what exactly you need the RAID setup for though. Maybe someone with more of an IT background can give better advice.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/ou/raid-storage-explained/502

[Simon Strom]

Hey Warren!, In a nutshell, the SATA ones are like the hard drives you’re use to with all the spinning bits. The newer solid state drives (SSD) are more closely related to something like a large thumb flash drive which have no moving parts. So the hard drive will be really stable and aren’t nearly as likely to crash. I’ve had 2 SATA hard drives at work and probably 5 fail at home over the last few years. The Solid State ones use less power also. The downside to the solid state is that 1.) they cost a lot more than a SATA drive. 2.) supposedly writing small files I/O can lag behind a fast SATA, but really large files will transfer much quicker on a SSD.

I’m simplifying it somewhat. You can go http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9134468/Review_Hard_disk_vs._solid_state_drive_is_an_SSD_worth_the_money_ to read more in depth if you want.

Incidentally I think OWC and some places offer kits for putting SSD’s in older Macs. http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/internal … e_Proother

Another option would also to be to get a larger SATA for inside the computer and a smaller external SSD for back up purposes. Good luck with whatever you choose. I’ve heard that the 2011 27" iMacs are benchmarked at nearly twice as fast as the 2010 27" iMacs! I might be getting one shortly for home. 😎

[Simon Strom]

Beautiful job Shane! May a lot more work come your way as a result.

[Simon Strom]

Thanks Harry! I might have woken up at the wrong time!

😮 😀 😀

[Simon Strom]

Ah ok, sorry for mis-understanding. Cheetah3d’s max resolution is 72 dpi at 4096 x 4096 pixels. So to get a higher dpi it would have to be rendered at a higher pixel size and then downsized. I guess the render could also be done at max resolution in sections and then stitched together for larger print output. It’s a pain I know, but I think it has to do with how computing power it would take to render dpi that large. Some of the other stand alone rendering apps, like Octane, may have higher native dpi output settings. I’m not sure what dpi Blender outputs. Ill have to check on that. Maybe we could ask Pixar if we can tap into their render farm? >jk<

Cheers!

P.S. This render just finished if anybody wants it. 1280 x960 at 72 dpi tif. Decent enough for a desktop image or shrunk down to print.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/117426/UKSB%20G … 0x960.tiff

[Simon Strom]

Hi Robert!

Yes I had to drop the resolution down to post it here. I can output a larger resolution one if you want. Just PM an email where you want me to send it if you do. I also use DropBox so I can put it there instead of the email. The size shouldn’t too big of a deal doing it that way. Just let me know which delivery method you prefer. I haven’t figured out how to get better shadows though. The ones on that last render were a little weak in my opinion, but it still looks ok. Right now the version 5 of Cheetah3D that I’m using does 8 bit images, but version 6 is suppose to come out in the next few months. It will support 16 bit images.

Any other requests for this one? Different angle, different materials?

Thanks,

S

P.S. I didn’t realize it but they do look like chocolate!

[Simon Strom]

K, here’s one out of a brownish-red granite and crackled ceramic in the background. 😀

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[Simon Strom]

No worries. Strictly for fun, so go at your own pace. I do look forward to some other takes on it whenever those come around. 😎

[Simon Strom]

Nice Nicola! What app have you usually been using? I’ve been at it off and on for about a year. More focused on it in the last 6 months though. There are a few 3d formats for the logo farther up in the thread if you want to play around with it. It’s a fun one.

[Simon Strom]

Ok, here’s a new icy one. Could be better. Will probably try a few things out later. The sky is from photo but the rest is all modeling. I didn’t fix the transition so it’s a little pixelated. Maybe I’ll try a beach scene next. ?

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[Simon Strom]

Yep, and these cry baby apologists want to make excuses for the criminals too. Especially when they are 18 and younger.

Here’s something cool we have here, even though it’s really shocking to look at. This is 6 days of recorded crimes in my county (DeKalb, Georgia).

http://www.crimemapping.com/map.aspx?ai … 882945ccb2

My area is just east of the bend in I-20 on the East. Looks like a bag of Skittles exploded.

[Simon Strom]

That’s right Robert, it’s to keep me from going berserk on them! LOL I probably would be in jail afterwords though. After one break in I did ask the cop that came what would happen if I shot one of them. He said, "If you shoot them inside, ok. If you shoot them outside, drag them back in.". He was absolutely serious about it too. I think the cops are fed up with it also. Our county budget cuts leave too few cops and firemen on post.

Yeah, that picture was taken when the wife and I were in San Francisco and took a day trip to Alcatraz.

😀

[Simon Strom]

I really hate that! They should all have their hands chopped off. I use to live in a really bad neighborhood. I still own the house because of the horrible housing market here. I can’t sell it. I’ve had two air conditioners stolen and one broken because they tried to steal it (I put a welded cage around it and they still broke the compressor). About $2000 in damage for $25 worth of copper. I’ve had 3 lawn mowers stolen, 3 sets of washer / dryers stolen (the laundry is in an outside room). Multiple windows and storm windows smashed in. They’ve attempted about 12 times in all over the last 10 years to break in. Two of those times they were successful in getting in, disarming the alarm and ransacked my house. Plenty of irreplaceable family stuff now gone forever.

I totally feel your pain. Don’t even get me started on what I’d do if I got put in a room alone with one of them.

P.S. You should make sure the locks are totally covered by the plate. My locks stuck out a little from the covering. The locks were Boron Steel so I thought they’d be ok. They took a torch to heat the locks up enough to make them soft enough to cut with channel locks.

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[Simon Strom]

Thanks Rob.

I saved the file out in 4 formats. There’s a native Cheetah 3d version (.jas). The Cheetah 3d Demo will let you do everything but save a file if anyone wants to download it to play around with it. The other 3 formats are (.obj, .3ds, and .dae). I think the .dae (Collada) will import best into Blender. Just remember to delete the Parametric box that’s automatically placed in a new Blender file. It’s larger than the logo, so it looks like it’s not there but it is. Please let me know if there are any problems importing any of the files.

I put this in my DropBox as it’s too big to post here. Enjoy! 😎

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/117426/UKSB%203d%20Files.zip

P.S. there are two complimentary HDR Images in the C3D demo that you can use in other rendering programs (like LuxRender or YafaRay) if you need.

[Simon Strom]

Thanks! My renderings need a good bit of work, but it’s a start. Yeah Matty, Kind of thought about that. Here’s a snow one for you. The render isn’t great. A good HDR image would have done a lot better, but most of them cost money. I tried doing a shadow matte under it so it would have a shadow, but it wasn’t rendering right. I’ll go back in later to see if I can get a convincing shadow so it doesn’t look like it’s floating in space. Also it would be neat to add some frost and snow on top of the logo.

I can save this out as an obj file for Blender user if Mr. Lambie gives permission to do so. It might be fun to have a post with other peoples renders. I’d like to change the globes into glass, but the render time on those take a lot longer.

Again it’s been fun to play with! 😀

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[Simon Strom]

Yep! The region of the US I’m in, the Southeast, has a really large amount of people of Irish, Scotch-Irish, English, Scots & Welsh decent. My paternal grandmothers parents were from Northern Ireland. Last name Shannon. My paternal grandfathers side were from Malmö, Sweden (hence the last name Strom). My mom’s side were Austrian. We are a mixed bunch here in the US!

😀

[Simon Strom]

Yeah it took a few hours to update. No problem with that really. I’ve had a few weird things happening with Safari. Like when I go to edit the copy in the entry field it deletes it all. My FaceBook app acts strangely sometimes, but I don’t think I can exactly blame the OS for that. Some of the apps on my wife’s phone didn’t get copied over when she updated, but she just added them back manually. Other than that smooth sailing so far.

[Simon Strom]

Our plotter both prints and cuts. So after the artwork is printed on the vinyl, it can also be cut by the plotter without taking the roll off. We use it to cut out artwork that isn’t suited for just flat cast vinyl colors. For instance if the logo has any type of gradients or drops shadows and and has a non rectangular shape, then it would be suited for printing and then cutting. I think the main thing that would keep such a file from being used for display though is that the artwork needs a bleed around the cut line. An example would be the Volkswagen logo. It’s round and has a lot of gradients in it.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_7yB-eeGviiI/T … -Logo1.jpg

Back to what Harry was talking about though, I have received files from designers where they’ve put different revisions for a drawing on different layers and turned off the layers with the older revisions.

[Simon Strom]

Our plotters see a non-repro blue (basically all cyan) vector as the cutting path. I guess it can depend on the cutting software or a preference setting though. It’s possible that that specific layer needs to be named something specific to be identified as the cut layer.

[Simon Strom]

Ok sorry Harry. It looks like I can’t send you a PM. I guess since I’m not a paid member? Can you PM me an email address? I’ll send you a zip file of the example maps. If not maybe another way to get the files to you?

[Simon Strom]

Here are a few resources for Wayfinding. I’ve never done much of that myself as we have a department of about 6 people that deal with that (although I work closely with them everyday). Here are a few sites that might help some though.

SEGD
http://www.segd.org/shop/98/239/wayfinding.html

MUTCD
http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/htm/2009/part2/part2d.htm

Corbin Design
http://www.corbindesign.com/wayfindings/

You might even check out some libraries for some info since it wouldn’t cost you anything. I do know that the more info you get from the customer the better. Especially excel files for any names that you might need or even names in a text document. I can’t tell you the number of times that we’ve been sent a list with a mis-spelled word on it. It will take the blame off of you if you have a hard copy of names. I did talk to one of the wayfinding planners. They all just learned on the job here and were trained by people that had been doing it a while. The more you do it the more you’ll get the hang of it.

As far as the maps go, there are a few different ways we do them. Not only style wise but how elaborate or basic they are can depend on what they are used for. Our fire evacuation plan ones are usually simple with a you are here arrow and exit routes marked. We usually use a thick stroke (typically 3pt line) for the outside of the building, a middle weight stroke (typically 2pt) for most interior walls, and then a thin stroke for minor walls and stairs (1pt, for instance bathroom walls would be thinner). I’ll PM you (I don’t really want to post them here) some example map files so you can get an idea of what I’m talking about (although some of the the stroke weights were not finalized yet). Most of them are in in-between stages of being finished. Some maps we do are for campus maps. They’re usually more detailed and are probably closer to what you are looking for. Sometimes we can get blueprints from an Architect and sometimes we just have to use Google Earth and piece it together (there’s actually a working example of that in one that I’m sending you).

Feel free to send me any others questions. I’m happy to help.

[Simon Strom]

No problem! Let us know if you have any other problems or questions about the layers or if you have any map questions I might be able to answer.

[Simon Strom]

I couldn’t agree more Andy. I also hate how Illustrator doesn’t have a way to set up custom rulers for working in different scales (especially large architectural scales that won’t fit on the standard art-board). It helps me tremendously in FH to be able to switch scales quickly. If I could get dimension lines and custom rulers in Illustrator we’d probably switch now that they have multiple pages.

[Simon Strom]

Thanks for the input Warren. I’ve never used CorelDraw so I didn’t want to guess about it. I don’t use layers to much now, but I use to draw maps for my company and it was definitely a life saver when it came to organizing the drawing. In Illustrator if you select some art in one layer you can move it to another by sliding the dot on the right hand side to the new layer. That will move the objects from one layer to another. You could also do Warren suggested and copy from one layer and then paste in the new. That would of course duplicate the artwork in both layers. You can also set a layer as a template if you need to trace something. Sorry if you already new this info though. 😀

[Simon Strom]

Yep, I wish there were more options for that sort of thing. We still use FreeHand MX and have to do all of our dimensions manually. I have a few different ones set up in my FH Library that are set to 1"(h) x 1"(w) (but you could do millimeters of course). I pull them from my Library and then just line them up and then move the points to match heights and widths. I have one that’s nested and one that’s not. I sometimes do have to add more nesting depending on what I’m drawing. Another good thing to add to your drawing is a scale guide (see top right corner of 1st attachment). We constantly have people that print out the drawings smaller than they were meant to be and then wonder why the scaling is off when they measure them. This will let them measure it and see if the image has been inadvertently shrunk (or enlarged).

Hope this helps!

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[Simon Strom]

Hiya Harry, You using CorelDraw or Illustrator?

[Simon Strom]

We do much like Ian suggested, but we have a circular pole running up the middle. Probably can do without the pole though. Here’s a link to the pdf with a tech isometric drawing. It’s quite similar to Ian’s drawing. http://www.apcosigns.com/techpdf/spcurve.pdf Some of our parts are Water-jet cut or extruded though. Hope you sort it out Eamon.

Nice sign Gert!

[Simon Strom]

Ok, so I think he most versatile and economical solution is to go with CorelDRAW and get the rStones plug in. Before I buy though , is there a huge difference between X4 and X5?

[Simon Strom]

I think it might even be cheaper to try and find a used copy of X3 or X4 for him and then buy the rstones plugin, rather than pay $200 for I-DesignR Lite. I’m a big fan of smaller developers. In my experience they often interact with users directly and are more likely to add feature requests. It would be nice if the plug in worked with Illustrator though as he already has that app.

[Simon Strom]

Thanks John and Brian. Very helpful info!

[Simon Strom]

"Graphtec do some software and stencil stuff for the Craft Robo, I think it should work on the full Graphtec."

Yeah David, This is the one I originally saw. It might be the best solution as it’s known for sure to work with his plotter. I just wanted to check out all options before he bought anything else.

[Simon Strom]

Thanks for the info guys! I’ll check those options out. I know that Graphtec has an app called i-DesignR that can do Rhinestones. My main worry about any other app is if it will work with his Graphtec plotter. I’ll call and email around to just be sure which ones do and then I can give him the best options to choose from.

[Simon Strom]

yeah, I saw that too! Most likely bottomed out because of the massive amount of steel and bullet proof glass on those vehicles. Probably didn’t help having several 200+ lb. secret service men in tow. What I thought was funnier than the car bottoming out though were the spectators that were angry when the bus pulled in front of their view.

[Simon Strom]

Jerk Americans … always driving people crazy. jk 😀

[Simon Strom]

Thanks Faisal, definitely took me for a sucker!

[Simon Strom]

Thanks for the info Hugh! I’d never seen it before. Pretty funny still.

[Simon Strom]

LA COURONNE looks like it’s somewhere in the Optima family

CRETACOLOR looks like somewhere in the Garamond family.

Not positive about the top two. A bit blurry.

[Simon Strom]

Same here. I have plenty of friends that don’t do much pre-press other than a proof copy with color specs and sizes dimensioned. They do like Jill and just send it out. The printer usually will clean up for press. I guess some places might charge more for pre-press preparation.

[Simon Strom]

Agreed. The open design of Harry’s makes it more modern looking IMO. I’m liking it!

[Simon Strom]

Great! Happy to help another Simon out. It’s really Google that had the answer though.

[Simon Strom]

I’m not sure if this is for just the XP OS windows or if it will work with program windows also. I know that macs have a file that contains the static size and position of windows can become corrupt, but not sure how XP handles it.

Try this and see if it might help though.
http://www.pcmech.com/article/how-to-sa … l-monitor/

[Simon Strom]

Hi John,

I don’t work directly in our Sign Planning department but I do work really closely with them when planning out large jobs. I know they usually print out large scale CAD maps that we get from Architects / Engineers to help them plan where certain types of sign go. We also must adhere to strict ADA guidelines. I’m not very familiar with your DDA guidelines and how strict they are in the UK. There’s a good bit of info for ADA guidelines that might be similar to the DDA rules.

Guide for copy sizes at prescribed distances:
http://www.geminisigns.com/signletters/ … -chart.htm

Usually after working directly on large floor plan plots they mark everything up directly in CAD. It will also be a major help for you to go ahead and see if you can get a message schedule from your customer (unless you are doing it yourself?). These are usually in excel format, but we do sometimes get them as word documents or even pdfs. Of course the larger the job the more organized you’ll have to be. I’ll attach a partial screenshot of one of our message schedules so you can get an idea of how we do it.

Sorry, I’m not familiar with the Vista system. Is that a sign manufacturer or is it a methodology for sign planning?

Hopefully I’ve been somewhat helpful If you have any specific problems though, just post again or IM me. I’ll try to be advise as best I can.

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[Simon Strom]

Ok, for some reason in my head I though the OS X server software was cheaper. I couldn’t check the Apple web site before as it was down for the iPad 2 update.

Anyway, if DropBox isn’t what you want. Here’s a guide to setting up Ubuntu server to play nice with Macs.

http://www.kremalicious.com/2008/06/ubu … ne-volume/

[Simon Strom]

Hi Wareren,

It might not be super smooth as a dedicated server would be, but since you only have a few computers you need to keep in sync it shouldn’t be a problem to use DropBox. You get 2GB of free space on the Amazon A2 servers. You can either have a folder on any machine you want that will sync, and/or you can just access the files via a web browser. I just have a folder on my work machine that syncs with my DropBox account. That way if I’m at home sick I can still access all the files I worked on during the week if I forgot to back them all up to our work server.

http://www.dropbox.com/

Also you could just find a really cheap Mac on eBay and then buy the server software from Apple. I don’t think it’s much more expensive than the regular OS and it doesn’t really have to run on an expensive Apple rack mount XServe hardware anyway.

Another idea is to take an older PC if you have one lying around and put Ubuntu Server on it. The software is free. The only problem might be is that the set up to get it to work with the Macs you have could be a little more involved. But it’s probably the cheapest option past using DropBox.

http://www.ubuntu.com/server

Might be other suggestions too if anyone else wants to chime in. Let us know how ig goes.

[Simon Strom]

Yeah Martin. That’s kind of what I though too when I saw it. Probably a good bit easier to make than the vinyl though! 😀

The artist is from Chicago, so probably no British Pounds have been swiped from you Bob. 😎

[Simon Strom]

Thanks Harry! I have another idea but no time to sketch it up right now. Might have a chance later in the day.

[Simon Strom]

This one is an extremely rough sketch. Just picked a random font, so could be better. I would have done the stain glass window wider if I did it over. With everything stacked, it seems a bit tall. Colors would need adjusting also. Anyway, just and idea.

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[Simon Strom]

Pretty neat idea! Also liking the "Studio Ghibli poster" they were hanging. The wife and I are fans of Miyazaki’s stuff.

[Simon Strom]

Great article! Thanks Harry. I liked the "Kill Your Darlings" article that was linked inside the article you posted.

[Simon Strom]

Yeah, Seattle’s pretty awesome. I have a bunch of friends that moved from the Southeast up that way years ago. Really clean town for a larger American city. Pike Place Market has great seafood (or really any fresh food you want). You should take the Ferry across to Alki Beach (pronounced like Al Kie) when you get a chance. It has a great view of Mt. Rainier on a clear day. The Rainier Cherry’s are a must buy during season. I think you’ll love it once you get there.

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[Simon Strom]

Ocean Sans

[Simon Strom]

Agree with Phill. I’ve had this happen before. To much dust can cause issues. Also over time from starting up and turning off the computer the constant heating and cooling can slightly unseat components. If the dust cleaning doesn’t do, take the computer apart and re-seat everthing (if you’re handy that way). I have had a few sticks of RAM go bad and a few Video Cards give out on me too. If you do take the machine apart it might be good to check / replace the thermal grease on the CPU chip. I have had mine burn off or ooze out over time and cause problems. I like to use Arctic Silver 5 (it’s cheap for a tube and you only need a dab anyway). http://www.arcticsilver.com/as5.htm

[Simon Strom]

Thanks Mike for the input anyway! If you do hear of anyone else in that part of the world, please let me know. Have some business I can slide their way.

[Simon Strom]

Thanks everybody for the input! The exterior project manager / engineer here at my company that I’ve been working with got a paint sample of RAL5002. He said it’s a dead match to 3M 7725-137 Saphhire Blue High Performance Vinyl. I was also confused by the term "foil", but now that’s solved with advice given here. We’re working on signs for the new VW plant being built in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We have a group from here meeting with them on Friday. It’s been a little hectic to say the least. Especially having to convert their specs where I’ve had to from metric to imperial measurement. It doesn’t help that some of our products are actually manufactured in metric. So some of the graphics have been a compromise between the two. I’ll post a few photos when the first phase of the job is done. It might be a few months though.

Thanks again. You’ve all been a big help as usual.

Simon

[Simon Strom]

I was using an AGP mac from 1998 up until about 2 years ago here at work! I think it had a 350 Mhz PPC chip in it. It would only bog down every once in a while. I’m on an G5 iMac 20" right now. It’s got 2 Gig of RAM. It does bog down in Illy CS4 sometimes. I just think that’s because Illy is a bloated piece of c#$!. I’ve found most Mac crashes happen because of a bad font though. Sometimes bad 3rd party RAM.

[Simon Strom]

I’ll add this method, although it’s a bit geekier.

Ghostscript (Ghostview and GSview)
http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/

Cross Platform

[Simon Strom]

If you’re on a Mac (which I’m guessing you’re probably not, but I’ll add it anyway for those that are) eps and ai files can be viewed directly in Apple Mail and also in an app called Preview.

[Simon Strom]

Hey John,

I think you’re looking for a type of radial halftone maybe. You can check some out here. Might not be exactly what you want, but it’s a start.

http://www.astutegraphics.com/free/halftones/index.html

[Simon Strom]

Hiya Harry,

I have a couple that I put in my DropBox Public. These should give you a good idea of a typical Corporate ID. Sometimes I’ve heard people call them Press Kits or Media Kits also.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/117426/AU%20Identity.pdf

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/117426/Emory%20Corp%20ID.pdf

[Simon Strom]

It would be a lot of fun! I’d definitely wear the Pittsburgh shirt. I’ve never been to Ireland, but would love to go. The last time I was in England was in 1996. The wife and I are actually wanting to go within the next 2 years if we can afford. It would be a really fun trip. I’ll bring you a Georgia Peach shirt if it happens. 🙂

[Simon Strom]

Yep, lucky city to have so many talented people do work there.

[Simon Strom]

Thought I’d go ahead and set it anyway. We’re on different time zones, so you might not have even gotten my original message until to late. Strange thing about that font is there are no built in Umlauts. You’ll have to create them yourself.

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anderssonsror.ai

[Simon Strom]

Hi Simon, this is another Simon. Do you have the font? I have it if you need me to set any copy. Will need to do it today though as I’m heading out of town for the next 4 days. Just let me know.

[Simon Strom]

I guess I should have said that the thermal grease is applied between the heat sink / fan and the processor (AMD, Intel) chip. Just in case you weren’t aware of what I was referring to.

😀

[Simon Strom]

If the pc is overheating you might take it apart and clean the thermal grease out. Re-apply some Arctic5 Silver Thermal Grease on it. They have some solution that’s suppose to help take off old thermal grease. I just use electrical contact cleaner solution and some cue tips though. I’ve had a few PC’s with overheating issues and that helped. If something has blown on the board it won’t help of course. But it’s a super cheap and easy thing to do.

http://www.arcticsilver.com/as5.htm

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arcticlean.htm

[Simon Strom]

Oops, very close. Just noticed some of the characters aren’t exactly the same.

[Simon Strom]

Boca Raton, with modified "L" and "H". Do you need some line art set, or do you have the font?

[Simon Strom]

I should maybe add that I’ve done a few things like manually in FreeHand / Illustrator.

1.) I duplicate my path in place and then double the stroke weight of what the inset measurement for the bevel needs to be.

2.) After doing that you outline the stroke.

3.) Break the compound path and delete the unneeded line. This will give you the inset line where your bevel is.

4.) Then you would just need to draw your angles lines.

5.) Clip and weld where needed.

[Simon Strom]

I’m going to agree with Peter that the Alien Skin Eye Candy plug in is a pretty good one to have. You could also check around on the Adobe Exchange to see if something suits your needs.

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchange/

[Simon Strom]

You’re right Jill, both of those too!

"Lord have mercy!" is another popular one.

[Simon Strom]

As we say here in the Southeast US.

Suh-WEET!

Thanks for the input. I’m heading home to make some Enchiladas for wifey. Will be back around later.