yep .. as you say most of the cost is in the tooling, the first design ..
i use allpcb for what i need, flexible is a bit more than rigid, but not much ..
most of the time i just use off the shelf matrix's with a pretty simple membrane overlay, nothing special, and cheap on ebay .. especially numeric keypads .. and in small quantities, less than a dozen each
Relatively inexpensive - you can custome design a keypad and have them made, just like you get PCBs made. What an idea for a control panel - and not just the switches, they can embed LEDs in them! The main cost is the tooling, but that's a one time charge, they actual keypads are pretty cheap. So the idea would be to deisng a puzzle piece sort of thing and have dozens made, then fit them together as needed. It doesn;t make a whole lot of senst to say draw up your whole ayrd and make one big membrane keypad - that would cost a fortune.
This video from Dave Jones talks about it and mentions one such manufacturer that he has used.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8XBBfvsPj0
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.