Panel Visuals - Creating Digital files

At the same time as researching and working on the the spec for the computer, I've also made a start on the visuals for the instrument panels.  These panels will need to look good both during the day and at night.  I'm aiming to make these back lit to match the real displays as this image show.

I'm starting with the overhead panel so I measured the space on my build where this panel will go. I then found an image of the overhead panel and imported it into Adobe Fireworks ensuring it's width matched the space I have available on my flightdeck.  The reason for this is that this program has the option to create a vector image.  (To understand more about the difference between a vector image and a bitmap/jpg click on this link here)

If you don't have a program that creates vector images you can always use a program like Microsoft Publisher that you can still draw objects of various shapes and sizes and also edit text.

Having imported the image, it just a question of using the tools within the program to create the overlay - the images below help to show what I mean.

Showing the start of marking the overlay on the original background image

Still a work in progress, but here showing the template with background colour added

This 2 minute video show the method for overlaying the image and placing text

In addition to starting work on the panels, I've also been looking into how I can print these.  Clear plastic PVC is probably the obvious answer and because they need to be high quality I've looked into a few local companies that do sign making. I've been quoted about NZ$160/sq.m. which I think is quite reasonably if it achieves the result I want.