I always found getting the
spacing right hard to do on paper. It's much less frustrating to use a Brother
P-Touch machine to make labels.
I've found it pretty easy to
address patchbay labels in
CAD, but I've also been doing bay labels that way for years. When I was in the contracting world we would
lay patchbay labels out in AutoCAD, print them and
laminate them, that not only made them more durable, it also made them fit more tightly in the label 'rails'. We'd also provide the related
CAD file to the Owner so they could make modifications to the labeling and create new labels if anything in the
system changed. With a color printer this approach also lets you implement color coding in the labeling, I'll sometimes even go as far as using colors on the labeling with matching colored patch cords (red, blue, green, black,
etc.) as fits the application.
Engraved labels can be a good option but make sure to check the spelling you
send and the spelling you get back. There is a
system out there with a bunch of 'Spech
Mixer', 'Spech
Amplifier',
etc. labels because the engraver apparently decided that "Speech" needed to be spelled differently and we didn't notice it until the last minute while working on a project out of town, so we had to go with what we had until we could get new labels, which I don't think ever got installed.
Trying to make a single, continuous
P-Touch or similar label for the bay, much less having everything
line up, is just about impossible, so you end up with multiple small labels that can be difficult to
line up and in my experience tend to have corners peel and get pulled off. In fact, while my specifications allow such labeling for some things, it is generally specifically not permitted for patchbays.