Wires for a good connection – MiniTut

[tomcat]

Maybe you want to make a picture with different wires, ie. for a circuit board. Here’s a MiniTut that shows, how to construct these wires. Have fun.

• Start with a simple line. In the sample picture below you see, that I made two of them. One red, one blue. The Line width is set to 0.5 pt (pic1).
• Select all drawn wires. Change to the Bevel-tool. The wires in the picture are made with the following settings:
  
  1. Bevel Type: Rounded
  2. Bevel Size: 5pt
  3. contrast: 75%
  4. Light angle: 300°
  5. Light elevation: 35%
  6. Outer Bevel
  7. Round Join
  
  Change the Color to the one you like (pic2).
• As I like to have twisted cables, we have to swap the position of the lines from top to bottom and vice versa.
• Clone (Ctrl+K) the lower cable (red). Draw a rectangle over the place, where the two cables meet and where you want your changed crossing (pic3).
• Select the Clone and then additional the rectangle. Choose Arrange – Combine Shapes – Intersect Shapes (Ctrl+3). The part of the cable, that takes the same place with the rectangle, stays, while the rest disappears. Repeat this point for all sections you want to change (pic4).
• At both ends the wires need to have some copper ends (as wires usually do). Draw some short lines at the ends, bevel them as before (with the size of 3 pt) and change their color to a darker yellow/orange. As before place the ends over/under the colored wires (pic5).
• You can see a finished couple of wires in pic6.

http://www.fotosammlung.info/test/wires.jpg

On the site http://www.fotosammlung.info/aliza/aliza.htm you will see a finished version of different wires in a little game. The name is Aliza and is – sorry for that – only in german language. But maybe you have fun with it anyway.

Greetz
Tom

[-=Drifter=-]

Tom, wow! In this one simple tutorial you have simplified two things I have always done differently, more involved. The simple bevel of the line makes for the proper shading of the wire in the right places and makes it look 3D - I used to use blends for this. The wires overlapping each other: I used to cut out a piece and try and place it over the other one but the two never really blended that well. Your method is perfect!
THANK YOU!!!

[Intbel]

I had a go at that.
Made rather a meal of it I'm afraid ...

[tomcat]

I had a go at that.
Made rather a meal of it I'm afraid ...

I prefer the REAL pasta. Al dente. Basta.

Tom

[tomcat]

Tom, wow! In this one simple tutorial you have simplified two things I have always done differently, more involved. The simple bevel of the line makes for the proper shading of the wire in the right places and makes it look 3D - I used to use blends for this. The wires overlapping each other: I used to cut out a piece and try and place it over the other one but the two never really blended that well. Your method is perfect!
THANK YOU!!!

Hi Drifter,
things sometimes are so easy in life. Maybe the way I did it, is not the best, but it works for me. I'm pleased that my mini-tut did help you.
Tom