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Hi,
After receiving a CAD drawing of an Cessna 172 MIP from AK mongo (also in download section), I decided to convert it to a BITMAP image, and then.......filled in the gaps!
And ended up with:
http://alexpilot.50g.com/cessmip.jpg
This could make a great sticker to provider an instant MIP when applied to plexi!
Great Job Alex!
Good to see you back in GA as well, I was afraid we lost you to the flying Bus!
Low and Slow For The Win!
Very nice job (a bit small though hehe).
I'm still waiting on my C185 PIM from Texas. I'm thinking I'm going to use this drawing to do the C185 panel. I tried working with Inkscape? There's a bit of a learning curve on that one. I miss my old PSP. I couldn't find my PSP CD in the rush to move out of my house and had to leave it behind. Tried putting it into Blender but Blender only imports 3D DWG files.
The sticker on the plexi is a model railroader trick too. If it's on the outside you could apply it to a piece of masonite too. That would make cutting a bit easier if not being CNC cut? I would perhaps make a cutting print first (do all the holes and so on) then using a laminater trick use shims to hold the glue sheet off till your ready to apply it (lining it up along the way). If you laser printed onto a piece of acetate. The acetate could be malleable enough to apply and strong enough that you perhaps wouldn't need glue.
I wonder if you would like to make your rendering available for D/L as well Alex? Could be a big time saver. Also if it's to big to put up here (I had a similar problem with the POH I tried to upload). If you would like to you can send it to my email address ronson2k3@hotmail.com. I think there is a 10gig limit on attachments in hotmail these days.
The C185 panel is much like this one in many regards. I think even the mean dimensions are the same based on the DWG. There are a few things on the 185 that aren't where they are on the 172.
Throttle group is up higher (makes way for an ash tray believe it or not).
Electric Flap control is gone (C185 has manual flaps) - Cowl flaps almost in the same place as the 172's wing flaps
Trims are on the floor in C185
The C185 has a fuel prime and and AUX fuel pump. There is also an OIL DILUTE switch (don't know what that's about but looking forward to finding out). I for the life of me can't think of a safe way to reduce the viscosity of oil in the crankcase with out damaging the engine and then to be able to do that via switch. A bit puzzling to say the least ???
A few things. If you use TGA (TARGA format) as opposed to BMP you will get compression without image loss you get from JPG. Although there are lossless JPG compressors out there. On an image this size though the loss would be quite minimal. That is there is so much data (large format) the percentage loss would be pretty unnoticeable.
Very cool work though Alex. There is the artistic side of this hobby too and you've done very well at that too.
Hi, thanks for all your kind words....
Regarding the Airbus, it's not my project...its my buddy's! My heart is in GA!
Every now and again I need to get info on how to build certain things and have had to venture into panel building again, but my skills learnt from the jet, make my Cessna project better, so it's a win win situation!
Regarding the MIP picture.....
You can have the whole thing if you want now....if you cant wait......gimme 2 mins and I will upload a link here! I will upload a few formats so just take what you want......
Take care....
Alex
PS....Dont get too excited, the quality ain't great, remember I had to convert the image which doesn't do too many favours!
PPS....I cant do TGA, it was made in MS PAINT! LOL
Alex - here's a tip. Download Paint.NET (it's free and brilliant), import the bitmap, and you can re-save it as TGA (or indeed lossless JPG).
http://www.getpaint.net
Fantastic tool if you don't want to invest in the likes of PaintShop Pro or the Adobe stuff. It's not as fully-featured but it has the critical 80% of the stuff you'd use most of the time.
NH
Yep I second that motion.. Paint.net is awesome. I use that too. It doesn't do vectors (yet) but it does nearly everything else without the overhead of other bloated paint software's out there. I was just getting used to using vectors on PSP when I had to move.
When using paint.net pay attention to key commands as that is the real key to getting things just right. You can move objects and shape objects with mouse and key stroke. In Inkscape it's a must.
Working in Layers too is really good. Take this panel for instance. You load the panel in on Layer 1 then you draw over it on layer 2 using one as a template. As you are only drawing on layer 2 you don't effect the bottom layer so you can erase only what you have drawn leaving the 'master' image as it is at all times. Tip here is to draw in a different color. I like red. That way you can see what you have drawn over top. Every once and awhile block out layer 1 (turn it's visibility off) so you can see where you are in your tracing. Once done you have a more refined drawing. If you are blowing up the image as I was trying to do with the 185 MIP.
I know you're going well what then I have a red MIP image. Well you can when completed cut and paste the 'working' layer into a new image and remove it's saturation (saturation = 0) making it black.
Then when painting as you had done use a slightly less black black (say RGB 250,250,250) that way if you ever want to remove it again your black isn't the same color as the base black. To a printer though it will print the same but to the computer it will be recognized as a different color. This will save much pain if you ever want to change that black to something else. If you are a bit worried that you printer will print more then one black you can at the time of printing change that black to a true black (save it as a different version no.) and move along.
I Third Paint.net. I used it to design my dashboard , create my engine gauges, and make stickers. I ordered Avery full page stickers online for the radio faceplates . I tried to find them at Office Depot and Staples but they didn't have them.
John
Hi Alex,
WOW, that lokks fantastic! I was looking at making something simmilar myself nbut I'm lacking graphic skills. Is there a chance you could share that with me? I'm planning a cessna/ga cocpit and that'd look brilliant!
Thank you in advance, and once again -great job!