Centroid Community CNC Support Forum

Wanted to get feedback on some custom VCP buttons I'm working on. I plan to do an entire "skin", but I'd love to get feedback on the various styles before I proceed.

The buttons are cool but I would look at that symbol and think it's a POWER button. Is that supposed to be your example of a "cycle start" button?

I'm not a fan of "symbols" on a CNC control panel as everyone may interpret them differently just as I may have. This is why I have TEXT and WORDS on all my VCP buttons. Just my 2¢.

But I do like a few of the 3D button styles a lot. With what software are you creating them? I used Illustrator for all mine.

The symbol isn't really intended to be anything in particular, I just put something on them, as when empty they look...off (like a keyboard with no letters).

I am using Illustrator. Any specific style stand out to you? From left to right:
1. Flat keyboard key
2. Candy style
3. Apple style Keyboard
4. Slightly dished square key (with led)
5. traditional keyboard key
6. flat 2d

I'm leaning towards style 4, because of the dark background, the easy integration of an LED indicator, and more room for text.

That is indeed a power button. You don't have to, and shouldn't, reinvent the wheel.

https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:pub:PUB400001:en

I should clarify. As you pointed out, that is the symbol for "power", but it was not the intended focus. I merely used that symbol to give a visual impression of how labeling on the buttons would appear. My intent was to gather feedback on the button shapes themselves, as I like them all, but would only use one style on an interface.

Yes button 4 looks great and I like the LED style. It would be cool for the buttons with an LED and I only have a small handful of those. All my buttons are custom as they all have an outline for more contrast and all the text is the same font and size. Many of the oem buttons vary in font, text size, bold vs regular, etc. I like a clean, uniform looking VCP with words on my buttons, no symbols. Again, just my opinion. Good luck with your design and please share a screen shot when you finish it.

I'd love to see how you set up the first 3-D button in Illustrator. I made a few 3-D buttons, but they did not translate well into the VCP. It was a mess actually so I gave up. I hate giving up on an idea like that.

You got me thinking, so I tested out a button to make sure. While it looks correct, the color is way off, so that's something I'll need to figure out.


It looks color correct in Illustrator and in a browser (Edge), so CNC12 is doing something with the color profile.

Red in your example is eb2227 and gold ffc70e, the same centroid is using.

Looks right on my machines.

Uwe

The "cycle cancel" and "tool check" are stock buttons, I only replaced the "single block" button to test. The strange things is, both the stock buttons look the same in VCP, and a browser, but my custom one does not.


edit: I did some testing, and it would seem that the gradient is the issue. If I use flat colors, they display in VCP properly. I think it may be related to the way that Illustrator produces SVG that is the cause here.

edit2: I tested with Inkscape as well as hand coding an SVG in notepad, and in all cases gradients turn out off-color.