Part Works. Draw Curve Question

[ttwark]

Almost all the work we do on the Bot is flat panel work. Straight lines and true radiuses. I recently did a project (free for granddaughter Christmas) in which I used the draw curve command quite extensively. As the results were OK, it wouldn't have been acceptable for paying work with out a lot of hand sand touch up. I did not get smooth transitions between direction changes. Is there a feature that would help smooth out the curves? Different software?

Tom

[adrianm]

Unless the curves were very poorly drawn I doubt it would be the software at fault.

However if you've got the latest versions of Partworks you could try the Fit Curves to Vectors command which will smooth out any rough parts.

[srwtlc]

Make sure you are using the proper post processor. It should have arcs inch in the name. If not, the curves will be cut as segments.

Also, make sure that your nodes along the curve are 'smooth' instead of a 'cusp'.

[srwtlc]

Should clarify that the arcs inch pp only applies if your curves are made up of arcs. If it's all beziers, it will still be processed with M3's instead of arcs (CG's).

[Joe Porter]

I always use the "PolyLine" command and put my line nodes at the high spots and then go into node edit and smooth the nodes and use the handles to smooth out the curve and fit my shape to my needs. The less nodes you use, the smoother your curves will be and the more control you will have...joe

[Hoytbasses]

we went from hand- drawn pictures, made a JPG of them , then used bitmap trace and finally 'fit curves' to refine our guitar shapes. we found that we could hit 'fit curves' 2-3 times to continually reduce the number of bezier points. Then we manipulated the nodes/beziers to get it perfect.

I was pleasantly surprised at how my students were able to do this quite effectively


KFH

[myxpykalix]

Tom were you using bezier curves? Otherwise what you get are a series of small straight likes that would look like "bizarro lines"

[Brady Watson]

I always use the "PolyLine" command and put my line nodes at the high spots and then go into node edit and smooth the nodes and use the handles to smooth out the curve and fit my shape to my needs. The less nodes you use, the smoother your curves will be and the more control you will have...joe

Good for you, Joe. You get it. This is the preferred method for professional results when tracing or drawing.

The task of node editing and fairing curves etc seems like a daunting task to most - but impatience has a price. Nice smooth curves are easy if you practice using the shortcut keys while drawing and node editing.

-B

[Joe Porter]

Thanks, Brady....joe