How to get the coordinates right

TravisM

Active member
I created a quick how-to presentation that show roughly what I do to get the coordinates for Tayda drill templates. I use the method in the attached and a basic caliper to get the X,Y coordinates from the center of the drill template. Just make sure you print the document at 100% size. I'm certain there are other ways to do this, but this is my method.
 

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  • Find the Coordinates of the Drill Template.pdf
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You can copy the drill template to Illustrator, set your "zero" to the center of the artboard (tip: enable center mark in artboard options) and measure from there clicking with the measure tool, zoomed, in to get precise X-Y coordinates (you'll have to inverse some numbers as the axis are opposite from the drill tool, anyway you'll be able to visually confirm on the Tayda drill tool). If you're already doing UV printing, it's an easy way as you'll have all this in your design file already.
 
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Adobe Acrobat has a great ruler tool, you can use that ! More precise, no need to print and no print scaling error !

Does the free version of Acrobat have this? A while ago I recorded a video tutorial that I haven't edited together and I wanted to cover this in addition to Illustrator but I couldn't find a way to install the free Acrobat while I had Acrobat Pro installed. If it's in the free version this is gonna become my go to recommendation
 
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Does the free version of Acrobat have this? A while ago I recorded a video tutorial that I haven't edited together and I wanted to cover this in addition to Illustrator but I couldn't find a way to install the free Acrobat while I had Acrobat Pro installed. If it's in the free version this is gonna become my go to recommendation
not sure that the free version has it. if not, it is highly probable that a free alternative does

The illustrator way is more precise and useful since I use it to prepare my printing templates too.
 
I import the drill template PDF to illustrator, select the centers, bam- the coordinates are right there (save for a single addition or subtraction from half the enclosure value to compensate for tayda’s matrix)
 
One small suggestion: Add "Tayda" and "Drill" to the title of the thread to make it easier to find with the search engines.

Thanks for the PDF!
 
The method you describe is good and I've done it before like that. But it is sometimes better to measure off the PCB. Also, 16mm right angle pots... have a 16mm offset from the pins to the center of the dial. So with a little math you can come up with the drill coordinates that way too.
 
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