Using Photoshop to draw simple plans?

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Mike
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During the lockdown period I started painting Mandala stones and to help me with the painting I built a small, lathe like "tool" to hold the stones as I painted them. This "tool" has proved so popular with the online dotting community they have asked me to make and supply them but that's not what I want to do. As an alternative, someone suggested I draw up a set of plans showing how I made the "tool" and send them out as a .PDF.

Can anyone please advise if it would be possible to do such a thing in Photoshop or maybe Photoshop would not be suitable for doing this?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Table Stones II.jpg
 
The online dotting community.. :)

@stevelmx5 is a bit of a whiz with 3d mockup thingies and may be able to point you in the right direction....
 
The online dotting community.. :)

@stevelmx5 is a bit of a whiz with 3d mockup thingies and may be able to point you in the right direction....
Thanks Ian. It's just simple plans drawn in 2D that I'm trying to do in Photoshop. Drawings with dimensions of the shapes I cut out of MDF to form the "tool" (I'll have to think of a name for it).
 
Maybe photograph them and add dimensions in PS/PP. Or trace round the edges of the shaped bits with a black Sharpie (other felt tip pens are probably available!)
 
Maybe photograph them and add dimensions in PS/PP. Or trace round the edges of the shaped bits with a black Sharpie (other felt tip pens are probably available!)
Thanks Nod, that makes great sense and would be much simpler to do than trying to use PS for drawing plans. Brilliant idea.
 
It is quite feasible to do this in photoshop; especially if you are only making plans and not templates. Probably the best way of making the unusual shapes is to draw them with the pen tool and then use the "stroke path" option.
 
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As a combination of the above ideas, I believe PS has a raster to vector tool so if you photographed it straight on from top and sides against a white background you might be able to get a drawing from the photographs by converting to vectors.
 
Personally, as the parts are all flat MDF pieces, that need to be drawn to scale, I'd suggest using Google Sketchup. It's a very simple tool to pickup and use, and is ideal for outputting flies like this.

From what I can see of the product, it looks like a simple thubscrew-locked vice with padded jaws. This could be drawn up in Sketchup in a few minutes, then output as files ready for laser cutting/CNC if required.
 
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Personally, as the parts are all flat MDF pieces, that need to be drawn to scale, I'd suggest using Google Sketchup. It's a very simple tool to pickup and use, and is ideal for outputting flies like this.

From what I can see of the product, it looks like a simple thubscrew-locked vice with padded jaws. This could be drawn up in Sketchup in a few minutes, then output as files ready for laser cutting/CNC if required.
Thanks Steve, never seen Google Sketchup but I will have a look for it. Once I can produce the document, whether it be photos with text or drawings I want to convert whatever I have into a .PDF file that I can send out to people.
 
If I went down the photos with text route, I'm guessing the document would be four or five pages.

Not really sure how I would do this in Photoshop. When I make the first page, there would be a number of photos and text elements on separate layers. Would I just group the layers together and call them Page 1 for example? Then somehow collate the pages together and convert them into a .PDF file to send out.
 
If I went down the photos with text route, I'm guessing the document would be four or five pages.

Not really sure how I would do this in Photoshop. When I make the first page, there would be a number of photos and text elements on separate layers. Would I just group the layers together and call them Page 1 for example? Then somehow collate the pages together and convert them into a .PDF file to send out.
I would export each part as a separate jpg and compile the images in a PDF
 
I would use my special tool which has an insert function at one end and a delete function at the other - also known as a pencil with an eraser :)
Draw the plans on paper, scan them and output as pdf.
 
It depends on what you want to invest learning time in. Which one might you need again another time?

A 3D program being the most ideal for the results.

Next is a vector program. Learning the basics there is also useful for logos and flyers etc. I use Inkscape for lots of useful things. And it's free.

A photo editor being the least ideal regarding the results. Even if you are already familiar with one, the commands you need for this are completely different ones. And you'd be learning workarounds, as photo editor tools are not focused on drawing.
 
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Why use a sledgehammer to crack a nut? A sketch/s showing dimensions together with a few simple instructions on an A4 sheet of paper, scanned or photograped as a tiff or jpeg file should be more than sufficient for anyone capable of using the hand tools needed to make the device surely?
 
I would use my special tool which has an insert function at one end and a delete function at the other - also known as a pencil with an eraser :)
Draw the plans on paper, scan them and output as pdf.

I wanted to plan some changes in the garden recently and ended up doing exactly that :). Graph paper, pencil, ruler. Then scan into Photoshop and work from there.

Once I had a clean plan of the space I printed it several times and sketched on it. Then when I had something I liked I scanned again and emailed to a friend who works for a landscaping firm. The analogue/digital hybrid route seems to work well for me.
 
Brilliant, thank you. You even managed to get the MDF colour;) Are all those elements on separate layers?
 
Brilliant, thanks again.
 
Most people seem to forget that Photoshop is primarily a drawing program, despite it being widely used for photo editing.
 
More help if anyone can please? I started work on my first page by opening a new document as a white A4 sheet, when I've finished my first page, I'll have a number of separate layers that will eventually form "Page 1". What do I need to do from there to start work on "Page 2"?

When I grouped them all together and renamed them "Page 1" and then opened another white A4 new document to start the next page, he grouped layers I had renamed "Page 1" disappeared and I couldn't see it any more.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.
 
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The layers are only visible on the document that they were created on.
Thanks for the reply but I'm not really sure what it means. What I'm trying to do is open a number of A4 pages and have photos, text and drawings on each of them. I can open and draw on a first page but it's starting or creating the following pages that are causing me problems at the minute.
 
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Think I've worked it out.

If I start with a "new A4 document in white, do a Ctrl J and use that layer as the background for the first page. Add all the elements/layers to that and do a Ctrl G to group the first page. Do another Ctrl J on the original background and use this to start Page 2 and so on.
 
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