Phill Dyson
Western Thunderer
Excuse my ignorance Cynric, but who are PPD ?
Etching - moved from D1011 thread
- Thread starter Phill Dyson
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28ten
Guv'nor
D1011 Western Thunderer
PPD are the company who do the etching http://www.ppdltd.com/ they are very helpful, and have always turned my orders round very quickly.
PPD are the company who do the etching http://www.ppdltd.com/ they are very helpful, and have always turned my orders round very quickly.
Phill Dyson
Western Thunderer
D1011 Western Thunderer
, what kind of artwork & what kind of format does it have to be on?,could you show us an example of suitable artwork?(if I'm not being a pain 
)
Cheers Phill
Another dumb question if you don't mind28ten said:
, what kind of artwork & what kind of format does it have to be on?,could you show us an example of suitable artwork?(if I'm not being a pain )Cheers Phill
28ten
Guv'nor
D1011 Western Thunderer
This is what i sent to PPD. the black is etched fully through and the blue is a half etch. this is a very simple example, but it gives an idea. As a guide that took me a couple of hours to draw up and check the measurements.
They will take most formats but I use Autocad so I use .dwg. If you are not used to a drawing package the first thing to do is to choose one, it doesn't have to be fancy as all you need is basic 2d drawing skills. I believe Dan uses turbocad, but there are free packages that will do the job.
This is a good source of information on the process http://www.hollywoodfoundry.com/HowToPapers.shtm
it may seem like a lot to take in but it really isnt that complicated and as Dan will tell you its actually quite enjoyable
This is what i sent to PPD. the black is etched fully through and the blue is a half etch. this is a very simple example, but it gives an idea. As a guide that took me a couple of hours to draw up and check the measurements.
They will take most formats but I use Autocad so I use .dwg. If you are not used to a drawing package the first thing to do is to choose one, it doesn't have to be fancy as all you need is basic 2d drawing skills. I believe Dan uses turbocad, but there are free packages that will do the job.
This is a good source of information on the process http://www.hollywoodfoundry.com/HowToPapers.shtm
it may seem like a lot to take in but it really isnt that complicated and as Dan will tell you its actually quite enjoyable
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Dan Randall
Western Thunderer
28ten said:They (PPD), will take most formats but I use Autocad so I use .dwg. If you are not used to a drawing package the first thing to do is to choose one, it doesn't have to be fancy as all you need is basic 2d drawing skills. I believe Dan uses turbocad, but there are free packages that will do the job. This is a good source of information on the process http://www.hollywoodfoundry.com/HowToPapers.shtm
it may seem like a lot to take in but it really isnt that complicated and as Dan will tell you its actually quite enjoyable
Yes, TurboCAD is the package I use and I have both Standard, Version 9 (2D) and Professional, Version 14 (2D & 3D). If I've done this right, there should be an example of one of my drawings below:
[attachment=0:10o68ark]Western Thunder DEMO.jpg[/attachment:10o68ark]
This was one of my earlier drawings and was done with V9 Standard, which is quite suitable for this sort of thing. I just use black and white on my drawings, so the drawing needs to be seperated into a top layer and bottom layer (the top layer is the one with the text, whilst the bottom one contains the tags). My drawings are also sent to PPD in .dwg format.
I upgraded to V14 Professional a little later, not so much for its 3D capabilities (which I hope to explore and utilise at some stage), but more for the fact that you can import photos and then "trace" over them if you wish. If you know at least one of the dimensions of the subject matter, it's then relatively easy to produce a very accurate drawing. I'm actually using this method at the moment for some work-in-progress etches, but for obvious reasons, would rather not divulge what they are!
A very useful feature of the TurboCAD software (and I imagine all the others), is the ability to draw something full size, then shrink it down to your required scale afterwards.
I think when I bought my V9 Standard software about 6 years ago, it was around ?54 from Amazon. I bought the V14 Professional software a couple of years ago via the manufacturer for about ?120
http://www.avanquest.com/UK/?tr1=AQ_UK_ ... 3&META=ALL
Learning to use the software was (for me!), a very steep learning curve and was incredibly frustrating at times, but I persevered and now really enjoy my drawing sessions.
I have dabbled with AutoCAD, but found it very hard going in comparison with TurboCAD (and it?s much more expensive!), but it?s what you?re used to I suppose?
As mentioned above, I can thoroughly recommend the Hollywood Foundry site too.
With apologies to 28ten for hijacking his thread.
Regards
Dan
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28ten
Guv'nor
Doublecad http://www.doublecad.com/ is free if you want to give it a go. Like any CAD program it does take a little persistence.