Drawing a Bezier curve to wood.

[planetWayne]

Hi all,
I'm having a thick here, I have a design that I've done in SU (the fence), which I've used a Bezier curves to shape the top of the gate and fence panel, no problems there, but how do I transfer that curve accurately to the wood!?

Cheery
Wayne.

 

[Slim]

Hi Wayne,

When I was making the legs for the table in my avatar, i printed the curve out at 100% (Which took a bit of trial and error). It printed onto 3 pages of A4. I then cut off the borders, rejoined the curve and spray mounted it on to the leg blank.

The print function in SU is a bit strange. It always wants to centre the image over more pages than it needs to.

Hope this helps.

 

[wizer]

one way you can do it is overlay a 20mm grid then print it out. Then you can draw a 20mm grid on your workpiece. Transfer dots at intersections along the curve and then join the dots.

 

[planetWayne]

I did wonder about just trying to print to scale. Just wondered if there was a more 'traditional' way.

One thing that I may be able to do at the w/e - the missus is hopefully getting hold of a Cricut machine for use with her card making. Now ordinarily these things will only print out designs that are on a cartridge (a dog, a cat, a box - you get the idea), more cartridges more shapes - but we've found some software that you can buy that will take output from .svg files ( 'Inkscape' or Adobe Illustrator type vector drawing) and plot it directly - so turning it into a little freeform cutter. That way you can plot your stencil onto card or acetate and use it directly. don't know about scaling at this point or how accurate it is but I'll give it a go. Should be good for making spray stencils too - beats printing and cutting out with a craft knife!

Just hope I don't end up using it more than the missus! (don't think she will be too chuffed!)

Wayne.

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Out of curiosity, how many degrees did you set for the Bezier curve when you drew it in SketchUp?

 

[planetWayne]

erm - how does - 'I dragged it out till it looked right - degrees' sound

Is there a way of telling by selecting any properties?


Wayne.

 

[SketchUp Guru]

The "Degree" can be set before you start drawing the curve. Notice when you select the tool the VCB is labelled Degree. Default is 3 so if you didn't change it, that's what your curve is. That means you have three spaces between editable points.

You can right click on the curve and choose Edit Bezier Curve and make adjustments if desired.

So I'm assuming your curve isn't a simple parabolic arc which you would get from a 2 degree Bezier curve. Depending upon how accurately you need to transfer the curve, you can do several things. One would be to print it at 1:1 from SU and use the print out as a template. You may need access to a larger printer or you can assemble a number of smaller sections.

Another thing you might do is draw a series of parallel lines say every 2 cm in the model. Set a line that represents the edge of the work if you don't have it already. Then measure along each of the parallel lines between the edge and the curve. Transfer those dimensions to the work and connect the dots. the closer the parallel lines and the higher you have Precision set in SketchUp, the more accurate your transferred curve will be.

 

[Steve Maskery]

The other way you can get points along the curve is to use the Text tool (the one labeled ABC and pick a series of points along the curve. The default text will be the XYZ co-ordinates of the curve. You can then print on an ordinary A4 sheet, take it out to the workshop and plot onto your workpiece. A long springy rule helps to join the dots smoothly.

Cheers
Steve