I feel your pain!!!…to all those around here (most people around here) who do art for their builds. I just spent about two hours trying to figure it out, and I ended up slamming the laptop shut and nearly throwing it out the window. You artists definitely possess a skill…so kudos to you.
In my opinion, you have to have a program with a good dimensioning tool.
A tool for measurement. Corel Draw has the best I’ve used. It makes mapping out the enclosure, hardware placement, Tayda drill coordinates, etc. an afterthought.
I generally map everything out in Corel Draw in a number of different layers. Tayda drill coordinates have thier own layer. Enclosure dimensions and hardware, including internal component sizes for pots, switch, jacks, etc. go in another. Graphics go in the white, gloss and color layers.
Having a robust measuring tool in the design program makes tweaking and finalizing very simple.
If you're talking about vectoral software, It's really not that complicated, it's just a matter of learning the few basics functions to create basic forms/text, move, copy, paste, import, group/ungroup and align...
If you're talking about doing drawings/proper artwork, yes that's a bit more complicated. Most of my build I follow the same process:
1- Import the drilling template as a guide.
2- Place large X where I will need to drill
3- Put all the text object I will need (Tone, Gain, etc.)
4- Find an image I like on the Interweb, copy it and paste it... resize to fit...
Voila...
If you're on Windows, I use InkScape (free software)... there are plenty of Youtube videos on how to... I didn't know the software and I just search a tutorial for what I want to do...This is what I was trying to do. I couldn’t figure out how to copy and paste the image. It’s not as easy as “copy - paste”…there a fancy tool for it, and then there’s the option for choosing the personality of the image you are pasting, and then you have to vectorize the spectrum frequency, and mellify the azimuth reading, bogeys on our tail, Goose, Maverick, Ice Man, and so on. Next thing in knew I was driving the Mars Rover!…
I’m sure that I could figure the software out eventually…but it’s a completely different world than anything I am used to…
If you're on Windows, I use InkScape (free software)... there are plenty of Youtube videos on how to... I didn't know the software and I just search a tutorial for what I want to do...
Now if your goal is UV printing, that's a bit more complicated as you'll have to manage layers and use different software to cover all the requirements.
Inkjet on water slide is how I started, mainly black only... I graduated to InkJet on vinyl to be able to do more color...Inkjet on water slide paper is already my moonshot…UV would be the equivalent of me building a functioning Tardis…
See? You do understand dimensioning.Inkjet on water slide paper is already my moonshot…UV would be the equivalent of me building a functioning Tardis…