Steggo Studios Tayda UV Printing Tutorial (Part 3 - Final Part)

[Fingolfen]

Step 12 – Remove design aides and final check!

At this point the artwork for the pedal enclosure should be complete. Next you should remove all of the “job aides” we’ve included to this point so we’re left only with the art we actually want to print on the final enclosure. NOTE: You don’t need to leave “holes” in the art where the enclosure is going to be drilled.

In the image below I’ve removed the original drill template and red rectangle I was using as a background. I’ve also removed the circles that were denoting the knobs, stomp switch, and LED bezel. All I’m left with now is the final art.



Next it is time to perform a final check on the art before it is saved and submitted to Tayda for UV printing.



You can double check alignment by hiding the color layer to ensure that that white layer is lined up underneath.

FINAL CHECK

Once you’re satisfied with the art, it is time for final check:

• Make sure the art is in CMYK format. While it will still print in RGB, the colors will be off!
• Make sure all the layers only contain vectors (groups, paths, etc.) – no text, no images, no image traces.
• Make sure the “White” layer only contains vectors with the RDG_WHITE swatch applied
• Make sure the “Gloss” layer only contains vectors with the RDG_GLOSS swatch applied
• Double check your color layer to make sure that there aren’t any “white” colored areas, and that the color layer is aligned to the underlying white layer
• Save the final image as an Adobe PDF – Tayda requires everything to be in PDF format!

At this point you’re ready to buy enclosures. Tayda offers several colors of enclosures both in undrilled and pre-drilled varieties.

• If you need custom drill jobs, make sure you order these and make sure they’re for the right enclosure size
• Make sure you order the correct size enclosure UV printing service
• If you need a second print on the white layer (rare) make sure you add this service separately – it is not included in a normal UV print
• If you want a gloss layer, make sure you add this service separately – it is not included in a normal UV print

The custom enclosure process usually takes roughly two weeks to complete. During the height of the pandemic when there were supply line challenges and massive orders, the timeline was more like four weeks – so plan ahead!



Thank you!

Thank you for reading this tutorial. Hopefully it has been helpful and you’re well on your way to creating your own fun enclosures. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me and if I can help, I will!

Blog link: https://steggostudios.blogspot.com/2023/01/steggo-studios-tayda-uv-printing.html

 

[steviejr92]

This tutorial is amazing! Truly a must read for new and experienced builders alike. Great info love how in depth you get here. Hope you make more in the future!

 

[Joben Magooch]

This is perfect!!! I’ve been meaning to look more into this and was actually just about to make a thread yesterday asking if anyone knew of any good tutorials before I got sidetracked. Exactly what I needed. Thank you!!!

 

[Alan W]

You’ve put a lot of thought and effort into this, and it‘s really appreciated!

 

[TheHammer1982]

Thanks for sharing this tutorial! I’m currently in the process of designing artwork for two pedals using Illustrator and it’s been kicking my ass due to not knowing what I’m doing lol. This answered all of the questions I had.

 

[Fama]

Do you know what happens if you put white in the color layer? I have a cartoony figure in the color layer, and I did a copy of it on the white layer using the Roland swatch, but I realized the color layer now also has white parts on it and it would be very tricky to remove all of them (select same fill color doesn't work). If they don't print at all that would be fine by me, but if it messes things up badly I might need to re-edit the image in some other software first and import back to AI.

Edit: Of course there was a magic wand tool in AI too, that fixes my issue I think. However, I'm still wondering what happens if there is some white, or at least almost-white left in the image? Is that fine, but it just won't print white, but rather a very very mild shade of grey? So if there is white underneath, it's fine?

 

[Fama]

I can report that white on the color layer was not an issue - I assume it just didn't print at all, which was fine, since the white layer had the white version of that image underneath. Thanks for the great tutorials, everything went quite well! One of my designs turned out to be a bit bland looking, I was surprised at how small everything is and one came out a bit more yellow than I thought, but those are all my mistakes, and not big ones.

Do you (or does anyone else) use any lacquer on top of the UV printed enclosure? I've read about some finishes scratching or chipping easily, so I was wondering if that would help. Or if it would hinder things, especially with a chromium finish? I have some sort of thin car lacquer I've used with acrylic painted enclosures, but if it's not necessary I won't bother.

Also, a last minute check with the ruler tool to verify that my chosen knobs won't cover any text was a very good idea. I think they should all be fine now, but if not, I'll try to carefully file the holes a bit to make it work better.

I'll attach an image of how they came out:

 

[DrVon]

Question on using templates / knob surrounds / polarity markings from pachyderm pedals. Is it as easy as copy and pasting in AI or do you need to do anything else. Besides the text needing to be vectorized. I'm going to submit a UV layout to Tayda and just want to make sure I didn't miss anything. First time using AI.

 

[Fingolfen]

Question on using templates / knob surrounds / polarity markings from pachyderm pedals. Is it as easy as copy and pasting in AI or do you need to do anything else. Besides the text needing to be vectorized. I'm going to submit a UV layout to Tayda and just want to make sure I didn't miss anything. First time using AI.

I usually have to size the knob surrounds from Pachyderm, plus you'll need to set the color(s) you want. I generally open the Pachyderm template in AI itself, then it's easy to cut and paste... and then size.

 

[DrVon]

I usually have to size the knob surrounds from Pachyderm, plus you'll need to set the color(s) you want. I generally open the Pachyderm template in AI itself, then it's easy to cut and paste... and then size.

Great thanks!. I should be fine then as I opened these up in AI and then copied and pasted. Also left them as black.