[sdiy] Designing front panels for synths

[Mike Beauchamp]

Hi Gordon,

for designing front panels, I spend a lot of time moving elements around 
in inkscape and standing back, asking others opinions, printing them out 
1:1 and laying knobs on-top etc. For my most recent synth design, I have 
16 months worth of inkscape files where things move around, get renamed, 
etc.

As for advice, I'd follow any convention that you prefer in existing 
modules. All jacks at the bottom? All jacks next to their respective 
knob? etc. From there, I'd create a 1:1 inkscape project with 
representations of jacks and all of your potential knob choices to scale 
and the text size you want to use. Then I'd just start laying things 
out, trying what works, etc.. don't save over your old work, in case you 
want to go back to something that worked a week ago. Once you got 
something good, you can start tweaking the text/labels/lines/graphics.

Your goals might include a logical signal flow, a clean design, a 
symmetrical design, etc. I like to see a rhythm in the design with even 
looking white space between controls with enough room for hands and I 
need things to line up - inkscape lets you draw lots of guidelines that 
helps with this.

Some people like to use all of the same knob size/colour, but you can 
also create associations with functions just based on a unique knob 
(think: big "cutoff knob" that urges people to spin it, or very small 
knobs for deep-dive tweaking).

I'd also make sure your knobs are sized to fit the function. The larger 
the diameter knobs allow finer control and more finite 'steps' you can 
actually turn them. This is helpful on things that require a very 
precise position of the knob over a large range, like how an oscillator 
tuning control over an entire octave requires a mini-moog size knob 
unless you want to frustrate people.

You can include a semi-transparent outline of the potentiometer, switch 
body or jack body grouped underneath the part that is visible on the top 
panel, so you know how close you can get those elements before you find 
out the hard way during your PCB design.

Have fun with it, make something you enjoy using!


Mike







On 10/13/20 3:38 PM, Gordonjcp wrote:
> No, no, not whether you should use Inkscape or Excel or some CAD package, actually designing them so they look good.
> 
> There's got to be some overlap on this list with people skilled in the visual arts.  How do you lay out the controls, connectors etc. on a panel so they look good, and don't look like the nightmarish "designed by engineer" crap that a lot of stuff seems to be?
> 
> I'm guessing there's some simple but non-obvious principles at work that could be explained if you could get past all the forum discussion of whether toner transfer is better than photoresist or Eagle is better than Illustrator or whatever.
>