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Anyone here proficient in AI? I'd like to draw up some "plans" for a few guitars but I must admit I'm clueless. I'd like to use AI to do this because as I understand it I can save them actual size which will allow me to print them with relative ease.

I also have CorelDraw 12... again clueless

I have Adobe illustrator CS. I've used it to create graphics for vinyl stickers, but beyound that? Fugetabodit...

Anyway just looking for a few pointers to get me going.RCoates39064.9681481481

Ronn,
I've found AI difficult to use for things you need truly to scale, so I've completely switched over to autocad. I'll ask my brother about it tomorrow, though, and get back to you. He's an Adobe nerd.
-j.

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“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

I spend the majority of my design time at work in Illustrator CS 2. Feel free
to shoot me any questions you might have. I've actually been using it as my
primary design tool for the tap-guitar I'm working on. :)

Ron, I'm going to PM you. Maybe tonight, but maybe not. I just came in
from a late rehearsal and I seriously need to eat a sandwhich

.James Orr39065.0838541667

I use the tool that was truly intended for drafting plans AutoCad 2007 That is what the plans in the library of plans are drawn on.

I would think it would be difficult to draw multi-tangent arcs accurately on AIMichaelP39065.4166087963

Ronn,
I use AI a lot to get printouts of the shape to scale.
I have imported jpegs of full front pics of a guitar and change the size of the image to fit the propper nut to saddle scale. Then I trace the outline and make my changes, dim the jpeg image and make my print.
Hopefully this makes some sence to you.

Wade

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Wade
Nashua, NH
http://www.wadefx.com

Thnx James sent you a PM.

Wade thanks. That makes perfect sense. Do you use the auto trace feature or..?

Michael, The learning curve not withstanding AC7 would be the weapon of choice. However, since I'm just goofing off here with this endevor, the price tag for AC7 is a bit much. That said, have you or anyone else here had experience with AutoSketch9? It seems to be a lower level AC type program that may have the functionality I desire.

Thoughts?

Although I have access to both Illustrator and AutoCAD, I do all my 2D work in Rhinoceros (my 3D program) which, I believe, is also cheaper than both (it's much, much cheaper than AutoCAD). I know John Watkins also uses Rhino for his 2D work despite having the same access to other software.

That being said, if you've got AI and aren't prepared to buy software then the autotrace is awfully nice and I'd be more apt to use that on a drawing than to try and make vectors for something precise in AI.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

Ronn there are several decent home cad programs on the market for $50-$200. My personal opinion is it would be simpler and to get one. import you picture in and draw good clean and geometrically accurate geometry. It will really pay off in tolerance outcome. But I know I am finicky that way since I work on engineering cad drawings every day.

I'd have to agree, Michael. Very close tolerances as well as being able to dimension, calculate areas, etc.
-j.

_________________
“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

[QUOTE=MichaelP] Ronn there are several decent home cad programs on the market for $50-$200. My personal opinion is it would be simpler and to get one. import you picture in and draw good clean and geometrically accurate geometry. It will really pay off in tolerance outcome. But I know I am finicky that way since I work on engineering cad drawings every day.[/QUOTE]

That's exactly the type of info I'm looking for. As long as I don't have to spend the better part of $1000 bucks to get the right tool fo my little exercise I'm more than willing to look at alternatives.

I mentioned AI for the reasons stated and CD12 because I have them. Actually Autosketch looks promising but I'll do a bit more investigation. I'm in no real hurry. Rhino 3d looked nice, but again, tall dollars.

Thanx to all

I had PM'd Ronn about some of the Adobe developed course materials I
used in college for Illustrator, mentioning the beast of a learning curve.
I've never dabbled with CAD and don't have any plans to, but how would
you rate the learning curve as far as basic plans go? If we call Illustrator a
7 on a scale of 1-10.

That's precisely why I use Illustrator: I have it. :)

I agree, there are some features that would be really really nice to have,
like being able to draw something tangent to a curve, or being able to
move a shape until it exactly touches more than one shape. Smart guides
are awesome for *some* of that functionality though. The tileable
printing feature is pretty nice too for making large templates for things.
If you print on cheap (thin) paper, you can match up the lines pretty
accurately, though I suppose that depends on how accurate you need to
be with certain things.

All that being said, I still wish I had access to some proper CAD software.
I used Rhino a few years ago for a good long time and loved it. I really
wish I could cough up the cash for a good CAD package. For 3d stuff, I
tend to use SketchUp to hack some basic stuff out quickly and I use
Blender a lot for graphics assets at work. Blender's accuracy is really
awful though; I wouldn't dream of using it for CAD of any sort.

James brings up a cogent point. The learning curve. As I stated I'm really clueless even with AI and as far as a cad program? Well let me say that some of the posts in this thread could just as easily be in German.

I just wanna draw some acurate lines I don't want to take a second job... It would be nice to have something that was very intuitive.

I'm not sure if it applies, but Rhino is $200 at student pricing. That's how I got it (doing my masters) and the licensing is such that you can continue to use the license commercially afterwards if you bought it while a student (with full support and all that). I'm sure some of the other companies have similar pricing schemes, although I know most of them have a clause that you need to buy a new license if you go commercial.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

Great! My wife works for the school district. I'll look into that.

I found it (rhino) for $195 with a bunch of tutorial stuff. Are the files something common that most print shops would be able to print from?

I'll investigate a similar deal on the AC product. EDIT: I just found AutoCAD LT 2007 for $154 (student) w/ perpetual license...

So the question then becomes again, the learning curve... assuming the Rhino files are easy to get commercially printed. any words of wisdom anyone?

Thanx Bob, for the idea.RCoates39066.9135532407

Well if anyone has been following this thread and was also curious about the import export capabilities of Rhino, here they are.

There is also a free download and tutorial available here.

Import File Formats

3D Studio (.3ds)
LightWave (.lwo)
STEP(.step .stp)
IGES(.igs .iges)
Raw Triangles (.raw)
Stereolitography (.stl)
VDA (.vda)
AutoCAD drawing files (.dwg)
AutoCAD drawings exchange files (.dxf)
Adobe illustrator (.ai)
Points File (.txt, .asc, .xyz, .csv)
Wavefront (.obj)


Export File Format

ACIS (.sat)
Raw Triangles (.raw)
Stereolitography (.stl)
LightWave (.lwo)
Windows Metafile (.wmf)
WRML (.wrl, .wrml0
Wavefront (.obj)
Adobe illustrator (.ai)
XGL (.xgl)
Points File (.txt)
POV-Ray mesh (.pov)
GHS export file (.gf)
RenderMan (.rib)
STEP (.stp .step)
IGES (.igs .iges)
VDA (.vda)
SLC (.slc)
Moray UDO (.udo)
AutoCAD drawing files (.dwg)
AutoCAD drawings exchange files (.dxf)
Viewpoint (.mts .mtx)
3D Studio (.3ds)
Parasolid (.x_t)
Object properties (.csv)

I don't think Autocad's all that hard, but I might be the wrong person to ask, as I've been using it since high school on version 10. Once you use it a bit, I think you just sort of pick up the "rhythm" of how it works and it seems easier from then on out... You start to figure out how to figure things out, if that makes sense.

I will say, if you're planning on sharing and collaborating with others, Autocad becomes almost a necessity. Or at least the ability to save in dwg/dxf. Converting formats can become a problem sometimes, as more complex curves and elliptical shapes get converted to little line segments and things like that.

I also wanted to mention these new Autodesk products that can be helpful even if you're not using Autocad. These are available for free. TrueConvert lets you convert DWG's back and forth from version R14 on up to 2007. This can come in handy because if you have a non-Autocad software that claims DWG-compatibility, often they won't open recent versions of Autocad DWG. TrueView lets you open, view, and print Autocad DWG files (no editing, though).

link to TrueConvert and TrueView

If you want to try these out, check out this old thread where I posted DWG files I made from a body tracing of a '37 Martin 0-18 14-fret.

link to 0-18 dwg thread

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

Well, it seems you're all set then with the Rhino thing. The student version comes with a pretty hefty and useful manual (like 1.5 inches thick, covers everything in both basics and detail). Also, the training materials are on the disc as PDFs and, although I never ended up using them, I have printed them out. Rhino 4 (I'd wait for that to buy, it's due in the next month or so I think) also has the best online help I've ever seen, with little mini-videos of the commands right in the help. There's an online newsgroup that gives amazing support for Rhino, as well, if you get stuck or don't know how to go about doing something. When I've asked questions in the past I've always had answers, often with 'corrected' files attached, in between a few minutes and a couple hours.

That is a pretty good price for AutoCAD, but only relative to it's regular price. I think AutoCAD costs about five times as much as it should, considering it's capabilities, but that's a long story about shifty business practices and being a market standard.

It's nice you found the import/export capabilities, that's actually a HUGE boon for working with anyone else on a project. Some of my clients use Solidworks and Mastercam, and AutoCAD, and I can import all of it and then export back to their format if they need changes made.

_________________
Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

[QUOTE=Bob Garrish] Well, it seems you're all set then with the Rhino thing. [/QUOTE]

Yeah, thanx for turning me on to Rhino. It won't be final until I write the check but I've downloaded the free demo and will play with that until after the first of the year. If it seems it'll do what I want I'll pull the trigger.

Thanks again to all who offered assistance. I'm sure , in the words of California's CEO, "I'll be Back".

[QUOTE=letseatpaste]
If you want to try these out, check out this old thread where I posted DWG files I made from a body tracing of a '37 Martin 0-18 14-fret.

link to 0-18 dwg thread[/QUOTE]

Thnx this will give me something to play with