| Frequently Asked Questions |
| What, exactly, do I get when I buy from ControlPix? When you purchase from ControlPix, you are buying a license to use the graphics. Actual ownership of the graphic is retained by the artist. The license allows the individual purchaser to use the graphic on his customer sites. A .zip file of the graphics will be immediately downloadable when you purchase it. You will get a background in ..png format, continuously animated items such as fans in animated .gif format, and animated items such as coils and dampers in 10-slices of .png. If you need a different file format, please ask. Feel free to ask for a sample if you want to see if they work in your system. |
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Do I need to buy a new copy for each project? |
| Can I let someone else use my copy on their projects, or can I sell them my license when I am done with it? No. If another individual wants to use the ControlPix graphic, they must buy their own license from ControlPix. |
| If my company buys the license, can more than one person use it? No. Your company must buy a license for each person who will be using it. |
| What’s with the copyright notice ? The copyright is registered to the artist, and as part of the license agreement, you must leave the copyright notice intact in the file. |
| You mean I have to leave the big “www.controlpix.com” across the face of the drawings like I see in the gallery? Naahhhh. That is just for the floor samples. It won’t be there in the ones you buy. |
| My engineer is a pretty good artist, but on the graphics he makes, his ducts look like plastic and his fans look like a 747 engine in a hair dryer. How can he make them look like yours? We have never found that plastic ductwork is all that good of an idea. It is not plenum rated, and might sag over time. We use only heavy-gauge galvanized ductwork in our graphics, and cross-brake it appropriately so that your customer’s screen does not make those embarrassing oil-can noises. A side benefit to using the heavy-gauge galvanized, Indestructium-alloy ductwork is that should your engineer make a mistake while linking the dampers, our mixed air ductwork will not suck flat and damage your graphics or your customer’s monitor. As far as the jet engine-in-a-hairdryer fan, we feel that exhaust temperatures from a turbine are too high for plastic hair dryers and ductwork to operate reliably. We suggest that your engineer use a steel hair dryer, if he can find one. Oh, and he should upsize his cooling coils. Since we get such good quantity discounts on the galvanized material we use and pass those savings on to you, perhaps you would consider purchasing our reasonably priced graphics instead of making them yourself. |
| Why are your graphic file sizes so large, and how can I reduce their file size to deploy on my project? What I send, unless you specify otherwise, is 32 bit PNG files. This means that each pixel has 32 bits of color and transparency information. They are optimized, in that a lot of the crap that a program like photoshop would leave in them is stripped out, and pretty much the only thing left is the copyright notices. 32 bits per pixel with lossless compression is pretty much the gold standard in high quality graphic files, but you are right, they are big.To reduce them, open your web browser to https://TinyPNG.org . It will convert them to files that are MUCH smaller, use less space in your server, load much faster, and you probably won’t be able to see the difference. Be aware that this process is quite lossy, though. I’d recommend keeping your lossless originals on a hard drive somewhere.The final step is to show appreciation for the TinyPNG author’s most excellent free service by generously throwing something in his tip jar. Perhaps, if we all feed his tip jar regularly, he will consider a slight modification to his code so that we could drop a whole heierarchial folder in the bucket at once, and download a completed folder of reduced PNG files in one step. It doesn’t hurt to ask. |
| Our manufacturer gives us green fans for free. Why aren’t your fans green ? Actually, while gray in color, our fans are quite green. We use only the newest superconducting, over-unity, permanent magnet motors, and totally frictionless (and invisible) Unobtanium bearings, so our fans are highly energy efficient and produce no greenhouse gas. Our fans will not draw down the power supply of your customer’s computer, even with startup inrush, and you will not need to use those expensive, heavy gauge links to power them. Why your manufacturer’s fans are green in color we can only speculate, but suggest that you keep them refrigerated. |
| What is contained within the files I download from ControlPix’ store? The file that you download is a .zip package which contains a .PNG background with transparency, .PNG animation slices (10 steps) for each animated item such as a damper or coil, and a stopped and animated .gif for items that show continuous motion such as fans and pumps. Is there a minimum order requirement? Yes. The smallest quantity that you are allowed to order for any individual item is one. |
| What if I can’t find what I’m looking for? Do you do custom work ? Feel free to connect with me via the “contact us” form. I’ll email back, and we can exchange information via email.Please send a good description of what you want done and we’ll see what we can do. PLEASE INCLUDE A SKETCH, MARKED-UP SCREEN PRINT, OR SOMETHING SO THAT I KNOW WHAT KIND OF FANS, COILS, SENSORS, ETC. YOU NEED AND WHERE THEY GO, SO THAT I CAN GET IT RIGHT THEI FIRST TIME! This is to respect my time, and the time of others who are waiting in line for their graphics. When I have to do one three times for someone, that means the next in line have to wait. If it needs to be done because of my mistake, I’ll try to cover it. If I do it as you asked, then you tell me the other half of the info, I’m happy to do it, but will have to charge the other half of the price. If the above doesn’t work out for you, I can refer you to a good graphic artist who can do quality custom work for you.For 3D floor plans, please refer to the FAQ for 3D Floor Plans page, located in the pull-down under the “Welcome to ControlPix” menu.If you want a firm estimate, I’ll have to err on the high side. If you want to ask for a reduced price after the work is done, please let me know ahead of time, so I can add the discount amount to the original estimate. |