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twizzstyle
- Posts: 2207
- Joined: Tue Mar 07, 2006 8:25 pm
- Location: Kenmore, Wa USA
Ha, that's funny! I have a template file I use to start every ski I do. I have circular arcs for the sidecut, and then splines for the tip/tail shapes. I just adjust the nodes of the splines to change the shape, with restraints on where it meets the sidecut that's its tangent, etc. Makes it pretty quick, I put in my width dimensions (tip, waist, and tail), then play with the tip shapes until I think it looks nice (no science there).OAC wrote:the spline just makes me want to shut down the app....
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twizzstyle
- Posts: 2207
- Joined: Tue Mar 07, 2006 8:25 pm
- Location: Kenmore, Wa USA
I use Solidworks, I haven't used their DraftSight program so I'm not sure how it does relationships.
In Solidworks you can select two different curves and set a "tangent" relationship with them. You make the end points coincident, so it forces the two curves to be tangential where they meet. You can also set a symmetric relationship about a centerline so it's all the same side to side.
You can also add dimensions on the "arms" of the splines so you can put in numerical values, rather than just dragging it around by hand. Again, this is Solidworks, so I'm not sure how DraftSight works. Maybe I will give it a try and see how different it is.
In Solidworks you can select two different curves and set a "tangent" relationship with them. You make the end points coincident, so it forces the two curves to be tangential where they meet. You can also set a symmetric relationship about a centerline so it's all the same side to side.
You can also add dimensions on the "arms" of the splines so you can put in numerical values, rather than just dragging it around by hand. Again, this is Solidworks, so I'm not sure how DraftSight works. Maybe I will give it a try and see how different it is.
Draftsight is not a solidworks history based solids modeler. It is a pretty basic program that lets you draw geometry like autocad. I think Solidworks uses the program to try to draw in Autocad users because it has a very similar user interface. There are no relationships such as tangency or coincidence, parallel, etc. It is totally a geometry based modeler. In other words, an electronic pencil. So if you draw a couple of arcs that you want to be tangent, you have to draw them tangent.
Most of the work that is done to make ski molds, ptex templates, core layout doesn't take a real complex program to draw. It is just knowing how to build the geometry and use the program.
Solidworks has lots of bells and whistles which you don't need but are nice to play with. If you know how to draw in CAD, that is the key.
Building a parametric model in solidworks is pretty complicated to get it to work correctly if you change lengths, width, etc. However, changes in things like thickness are not linear so you need to be carefull when you start editing the model.
When you export files out of Snowcad, I believe it uses polylines which are small straight line segments. If I am not mistaken, the tip and tail curves are really not arcs but tiny straight line segments. If they are short enough, it works out ok with a cnc program. I don't know if there is any kind of a tolerance that you can set for exporting out of Snowcad or not.
On another note, be carefull if you use programs like Adobe Illustrator. Although it makes pretty pictures, the geometry is not real accurate. Everything ends up as a spline and when you import it into a CNC program, the programmers are always complaining that the end of elements are not connected and the geometry is not that accurate. I don't mean to trash the program but it is not meant to be a CAD program. It is for illustration just like it says.
Most of the work that is done to make ski molds, ptex templates, core layout doesn't take a real complex program to draw. It is just knowing how to build the geometry and use the program.
Solidworks has lots of bells and whistles which you don't need but are nice to play with. If you know how to draw in CAD, that is the key.
Building a parametric model in solidworks is pretty complicated to get it to work correctly if you change lengths, width, etc. However, changes in things like thickness are not linear so you need to be carefull when you start editing the model.
When you export files out of Snowcad, I believe it uses polylines which are small straight line segments. If I am not mistaken, the tip and tail curves are really not arcs but tiny straight line segments. If they are short enough, it works out ok with a cnc program. I don't know if there is any kind of a tolerance that you can set for exporting out of Snowcad or not.
On another note, be carefull if you use programs like Adobe Illustrator. Although it makes pretty pictures, the geometry is not real accurate. Everything ends up as a spline and when you import it into a CNC program, the programmers are always complaining that the end of elements are not connected and the geometry is not that accurate. I don't mean to trash the program but it is not meant to be a CAD program. It is for illustration just like it says.