Need help with making a simple vent

[dray]

Hiya. Im trying to make a vent for a cabinet we finished recently. I tried making designs in insignia and part wizard but it just doesnt come out right. Tried for hours as bmp then wintopo.


Is there a way to replicate these designs?




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I need to make them around 8" X 14" to go in underside of cabinet

[paco]

Fairly easy. What's not working in PW (or Insignia)?

Start by designing the basic shape(s) of the pattern then play with it to see how you can block copy it the way above...

[dray]

I'm just not very familiar with them yet I think.

Heya Paco ,I have been admiring all your work for a looong time. You do some incredible stuff!

I imported as a BMP then clicked bmp to vector and it didnt do anything lol.

So I spent about an hour trying to isolate colors so I could turn it into a black and white bmp to no avail.

Then I simply created the designs in MS Paint but they were recognised as single lines. At the moment im baffled and have a huge headache lol.

Ive been pushing late nights for a few months now at the shop then at home trying to grasp all the new software and how to deal with vectors etc.

I'm sure Ill get used to it. I have learned a TON from Ron Valera at rngengravers.com. I bought a membership and have been doing my best daily to spend at least 4+ hours watching his videos and testing on my own but some things are just eluding me.

[drodda]

With simple repeat shapes like these I would just draw them from scratch and then copy as I needed to make the vent. I do this in autocad then bring it into PW for cutting.

[dray]

thx ill try that

[drodda]

vent1
vent.zip (http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/messages/312/vent-19657.zip) (20.6 k)


This is a autocad DXF file of the first vent you show. You can import this directly into Parts wizard and then make your cutting file.

-D

[dray]

Whoa thx Dave, how did you make it? Autocad or?

[drodda]

I made it in autocad. Make your initial pattern then just make an array of the pattern and trim.

I do 99% of my stuff in Autocad and import into PW.

Payment for the bug file you sent me,

-D

[drodda]

vent2
vent2.zip (http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/messages/312/vent2-19660.zip) (10.2 k)

And a DXF file of the last vent in the pictures

[dray]

Thx Dave!!

I have a buddy that uses Autocad. Hes also a cabinet maker...

I called him over to check out the shopbot, I pull up my software whip him up a sign lol I didnt check toolpathing machine starts spinning around zipping in and out. It looked like a dog chewed it up by the time it was done..

He said he could make it all line up and space everything perfect in just a few mins in Autocad.

So Im gonna fiddle with is autocad and see if I get the hang of it this next month or so.

Thx again, you saved me hours and hours of toiling.

[jseiler]

You might consider inkscape, its similar in function to adobe illustrator Its also free http://www.inkscape.org/ It has a fairly robust and configurable bitmap to vector converter. It also helps to gray scale the image and reduce the number of colors until you have an easy image to trace. For bitmap work, I use "the gimp" or its cousin "gimpshop" (gimp reconfigured to be like photoshop)

For your stuff though, i'd trace one chunk of it by putting the bitmap on a layer and tracing over it. Replicate. For geometrical things, flaws in the trace tend to be obvious and that's why its better to make one section then replicate.

John

[btk]

Danny,

I think that any vector drawing program (corel, turbocad, rhino, part wizard, etc) will do the job for most any 2d project. They all have similar paradigm's where you can create vectors and then edit the vectors by stretching them, rotating, mirroring, cutting, trimming or joining, etc. (some programs have different names for those operations, but they are mainly the same).

One thing that might be helpful when first starting to do vector drafting is to first sketch by hand what you are trying to create.
Then try to break down the geometry in your mind into primitives (lines, squares, circles, ovals, etc).

You can put a lot of these primitive shapes on the page (don't worry about overlapping or trying to get perfect from the start).

Once you get the basic proportions (you can use the scaling operations to resize different components), you can then start to "trim" and "join" shapes and removing segments to achieve the final shape.

You can create construction lines and easily erase (just as you would do laying out carpentry in the shop with a pencil or chalk lines).

Save you work often when you reach different milestones in your drawing so that if you mess up, you can get back to a "safe" version and start again.

As John Stated above, look for repeating patterns when possible so you really only would need to draft one and then copy and join multiple copies.

If you were starting with a Bitmap, you can also put the image in the background and trace the outlines using the "spline" features (could be called something else in different software).
These splines simply allow you to put points on the page and the software automatically fits a curve through the points that you place. For a tight radius curve, you place more points closer together, for straighter sections, you do not need so many points.

Eventually, you will get pretty fast at creating vectors from scratch that you might take one look at a BMP and realize that you could create 95% of the image from scratch and skip the tracing or do a combination of both tracing and using primitives and constructing yourself.

However I have found that the automated BMP to vector functions available in these software packages are a waste of time unless you have the cleanest of images with very distinct borders, etc.

Brian

[dray]

Thanks guys. BTW Dave heres your VENT!!! Thx a bunch it fits the look perfect.. Cant wait to go back and get pics after its painted

Brian.. How do you "join" join vectors in insignia or partswizard?

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[drodda]

Glad I could help. I am actually going to try and cut the Fly out tomorrow. My daughter will love it.
Let me know if you need any help in the future.

-D

[btk]

Danny,

I am not a PW expert, however the attached image is from the PW Manual (pdf format). Appears that they use "weld" instead of "join" to refer to combining two touching vectors. They use "join" to refer to combining two vectors that are not touching (other software my refer to that as blending).

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-Brian

[dray]

ahh the weld command.. THX brian.