1590BB Simple Spreadsheet for converting Tayda Drill Template to Adobe Illustrator XY coordinates

[keyth72]

I wanted to share this in case anyone else finds it useful. I had an existing Tayda Drill template that I wanted to add UV print artwork to using Adobe Illustrator. In order to make an accurate layout of the controls I needed to convert the xy coordinates from the center origin (Tayda) to a top-left origin (Illustrator, and I assume most graphic design products). This is a simple spreadsheet which calculates that for an overdrive pedal I'm working on. You'll need to put the total x/y width height of the canvas for your enclosure (this one is a 1590bb), and then input the x/y in millimeters from your Tayda Drill Template. The X/Y will then be calculated in the right hand box, and entered into placeholder objects to define your layout in Adobe Illustrator. I added columns for the drill hole and component diameters for reference.

Not sure if anyone else uses this kind of workflow, but it saved me a bit of time and was easy to put together. Enjoy!

The forum doesnt allow excel files as attachments (probably for good reason) so I uploaded it to one of my Github repos, you can follow the link and click "raw" to download the spreadsheet:

GuitarPedalPCBs/tools/TaydaDrill to Adobe Illustrator xy coord.xlsx at main · GuitarML/GuitarPedalPCBs

Collection of KiCad circuit board designs for guitar pedals you can build yourself. - GuitarML/GuitarPedalPCBs

github.com

This is what it looks like:

 

[Brett]

Very gracious of you to offer this.

It's been too long since I've used Adobe Illustrator, but does AI not allow you to set the document/coordinate origin to wherever you want?

If not, I'd be a little surprised, I use this feature regularly in Affinity Designer.

 

[chris.knudson]

Very gracious of you to offer this.

It's been too long since I've used Adobe Illustrator, but does AI not allow you to set the document/coordinate origin to wherever you want?

If not, I'd be a little surprised, I use this feature regularly in Affinity Designer.

Yes. I set the origin point to the middle of the design, and then the Tayda drill coordinates don't need to be translated. I just create circles at the diameter of the hole (with a point in the center. Then I just set the coordinates of the item to the drill coordinates.

 

[keyth72]

Very gracious of you to offer this.

It's been too long since I've used Adobe Illustrator, but does AI not allow you to set the document/coordinate origin to wherever you want?

If not, I'd be a little surprised, I use this feature regularly in Affinity Designer.

lol yeah, looks like you can even just drag the origin around where you want it. I guess this is just for people that need more spreadsheets in their life!

 

[Bricksnbeatles]

Oh wow this is fantastic! Just a few days ago I spent an hour or two converting the muffin factory drill template that was shared here into a uv print file, but this is much quicker!

 

[chris.knudson]

Also, if you're lucky enough to have the build documentation, the PPCB drill templates are to scale, and you can just pull them into illustrator from the PDF. I usually put them in a base "drill-template" layer, that I can turn on and off. The nice thing about having the build document drill template in the illustrator file is that they usually have the control labels, which helps to keep you from labeling the volume control "Tone" and the tone control "Volume."

 

[UnusualMuse]

This is super helpful! I have a related question: The Tayda drilling template orients the 1590XX enclosure *vertically* instead of horizontally, so that the side labeled "Top" in the drilling template is actually one of the sides of the pedal I'm building (I presume the left side; I can't find any mention on Tayda's site that says which sides of the enclosure correspond to which relative to the UV printing sides). The drilling template provided with my PCB provides the X and Y coordinates oriented from the center with the enclosure oriented horizontally. So when I put the hole coordinates in the Tayda template they appear in the correct orientation for the pedal, correct side up and with all of the holes in the right place relative to each other, but since the Tayda template is oriented vertically nothing is in the right place relative to the enclosure. Is there any elegant way to tell this spreadsheet to rotate all of the values 90 degrees clockwise to make the X and Y values correct for the Tayda template's vertical orientation?