CAD for rods?

[marcus]

Hi,

I'm about to start a project which is going to require a lot of quite complex rods. It occurred to me that, since I do most of my design work on the computer these days, it might work to send my files off to a company that does wide format printing and get them to print the rods at 1:1 scale straight from the DXF files....

I could then spray mount the drawings onto hardboard and would have an instant rod. It would save me a lot of time - and would reduce the chance of errors in transferring from the drawings to the rod by hand.

Has anyone tried this?

Marcus.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Yes and no.

I've never had any printed of large in full, but I regularly print of small parts at full size, up to A4 and until recently p to A3 on a friend's printer.

One compromise, which I've also used before, is to draw the main rod by hand, but add printed details at the joints etc.

S

 

[MikeG.]

Marcus,

as an Architect, my day job involves Autocad and an A1 plotter. As a one-off I could plot your drawings out for you at 1:1 from a DXF or DWG file.

Mike

 

[mr]

Welcome Mike by the way. Didn't notice you pop up here.

Cheers Mike (Riley)

 

[9fingers]

Possibly worth checking that the paper does not stretch/shrink when you glue it.
Less of a problem with a single rod but if several rods lead to parts that have to fit together then movement could cause a problem.

Pre the days of computer cad we used to do drawings and artwork where scale was important (printed circuit boards etc) on mylar sheet to avoid movement problems.

Bob

 

[MikeG.]

Cheers Mike!
I popped up here because I reckon there is more cabinet making here than on Get Woodworking...........it will take me a while to get to grips with all of the buttons and icons, and particularly to get photos onto here. There also seem to be more regulars....

Bob,

that is a danger, but only very slight. Generally, the plots are entirely accurate (assuming a reasonable grade of paper), but copies from a copying machine are quite unreliable due to the heat used in the process.

Mike

 

[ivan]

Our local office supply shop has an A1 printer/roll paper for 'hire' so I guess others would offer a similar service. However....

Have had several tries at producing various scales (for jigs) with TurboCAD, which are pretty accurate, but only stay so if you print them on (plastic) film. Laminating causes the least problem to paper, but to do this you still have to scale the print by trial and error. Worth it for a jig scale perhaps, if you have your own laminator. Spray mount might be OK for your purpose?

 

[marcus]

Thanks to all for your replies and thanks, Mike, for your offer.

The possibility of shrinkage hadn't occurred to me - glad I asked! I'm going to do a few experiments and see what happens.

Cheers

Marcus

 

[MikeG.]

Ivan,

I am not familiar with Turbocad, but Autocad most certainly doesn't suffer from the scaling problem you talk of. I can plot a properly-drawn drawing at any scale I choose. It is a serious drawing programme used by the vast majority of UK architects and structural engineers, and can also produce properly scaled 3D images.

I never build my furniture from proper drawings though, so have no idea whatsoever of what anyone would do with a full-scale drawing.......

Mike

 

[marcus]

I never build my furniture from proper drawings though, so have no idea whatsoever of what anyone would do with a full-scale drawing.......

You take the timber and lay it on the rod, and take all the measurements directly off the drawing. This hugely reduces the chance of expensive mistakes, and speeds things up a lot in a complex piece. It also makes the piece easily repeatable in the future....

Marcus.

 

[bugbear]

Ivan,

I am not familiar with Turbocad, but Autocad most certainly doesn't suffer from the scaling problem you talk of.

I think the errors mentioned are in the plotter and/or substrate plotted upon.

BugBear

 

[wizer]

For the record, I recently printed a toychest rod via sketchup, full size, to scale on a plotter and everything measured exactly as I'd drawn it

 

[MikeG.]

Marcus,

everyone is different, thank goodness..........but I already spend far too many hours in front of the computer drawing buildings, so the thought of spending workshop time drawing is a bit of a nightmare for me. One quick 3D sketch on the back of an offcut, 2 or 3 key dimensions, and I'm away......

..........but then, I don't have customers who would want to know what their piece of furniture is going to look like!

Actually, whilst on the subject, I find that there is generally more design work in designing furniture than in my day job! I certainly worry about details far more.......agonising over the placement of contrasting dowels or pellets is good for at least couple of hours. No drawing in the world is going to reduce the amount of time you can spend carefully selecting how to get the grain just right (without wasting any of the precious timber in the process).

Anyway, let me know if you want a plot at full scale.......

Cheers

Mike

 

[marcus]

One quick 3D sketch on the back of an offcut, 2 or 3 key dimensions, and I'm away......

I'm with you on that - I work that way when I can, and prefer doing so.

Sometimes for me though, particularly with built in stuff,either the (financial) stakes are too high to wing it, or design considerations become more important than process.

Cheers

Marcus

 

[MikeG.]

That's a nice cabinet Marcus......particularly the inside.

I notice that is a link to an external site..............does nobody on here maintain a gallery on the site? I really must work out how to get some photos on here.......I'm in the middle of a run of furniture in spalted sycamore and walnut that I would like to post.

The only other drawings I ever do for furniture are the "red-herring" drawings I do for my wife who then thinks she is getting what she wants.......plain, simple, boring pieces. That cunning plan will only work for so long....

Mike

(PS Spellchecker reckoned that "spalted" should be "splatted"! )

 

[marcus]

Mike, I believe if you click the "my blog" link at the top of the page you can set up a blog that's hosted on this site and post pictures to that. I'd be interested to see some of your furniture - spalted sycamore and walnut sounds like a nice combination....

Cheers

Marcus

 

[MikeG.]

Marcus,

I've just managed it, but using Flickr (?) as the host (from instructions in the General Chat forum). It is in the Projects, Workshop Tours etc. forum.

Mike