2-sided carve--HELP!

[Steven Alford]

I am trying to make a table leg that will be carved on both sides. I originally scanned in a picture of a table leg and imported it into Designer then traced around it and then deleted the original pattern, leaving just my trace.
Now I am trying to figure out how to carve this thing so that it looks like a table leg, you know, kinda bulbous with filigrees and a pierced eyelet half way up the leg.(see attached)

My problem is (keep in mind I am just figuring out this software) I can't figure out how to outline my trace so that it will carve half way through the wood (1/2") from one side and half way through from the other side. I only have the front side worked on so far.

So far the only thing I did was make my trace a carve region that is .25 deep and then put on the filigrees. I don't really want that, I just want it with a convex surface with the filigrees. I tried giving it a surface but it would not show up.

Can any one help??

[Dan-Woodman]

Steven
Just design your project on the front w-the cutpath all the way through. Then you can copy and paste the reverse side ( after flipping )and turning. Line thr reverse side up with the cutpath from the front side,or center it.and there you go. You cannot do a cutpath from the back , only the front. hope this helps a little.
later Daniel

[AskBud]

I am trying to make a table leg that will be carved on both sides. I originally scanned in a picture of a table leg and imported it into Designer then traced around it and then deleted the original pattern, leaving just my trace.
Now I am trying to figure out how to carve this thing so that it looks like a table leg, you know, kinda bulbous with filigrees and a pierced eyelet half way up the leg.(see attached)

My problem is (keep in mind I am just figuring out this software) I can't figure out how to outline my trace so that it will carve half way through the wood (1/2") from one side and half way through from the other side. I only have the front side worked on so far.

So far the only thing I did was make my trace a carve region that is .25 deep and then put on the filigrees. I don't really want that, I just want it with a convex surface with the filigrees. I tried giving it a surface but it would not show up.

Can any one help??

Steven,
This one is going to be fun!
Your 1/2" thickness may be a bit too thin, but you can play with your options.
Let's just start on the Outline & Dome first.
1) Hold down the CTRL and highlight both the "Line1" and the "C Filagree"(on the foot).
2) Click the Outline Icon. This gives you 2 paths.
3) Delete the small path on the knee and click outside of all designs.
4) Highlight the Leg path (it should look like the attached picture).
5) Click the Region Icon.
6) Click on the Select Surface Icon and choose the Vertical Dome.
7) Set your Depth and Heght.
8] You will now, probably, need to go to each Filagree and make them additive.
9) Go to Edit and SELECT ALL. (You may not need the Spline)
10) Click on GROUP.
11) Now hold CTRL and highlight GROUP as well. (This should activate the "Make Pattern" Icon, if you can make a pattern you may be home free).
If not, you have lots of repositioning to do on the back of your board after you do a COPY & PASTE.

It's 1:34am DST in Ohio, so I'll sign off for now.
AskBud

[pine acres woodshop]

Are you looking for something like this?

[DocWheeler]

Steve,

If you did as Bud suggests you could do the front and backs on different boards so that when glued together you had a thicker, stronger, and better looking leg.

Just my opinion,

[AskBud]

Steve,

If you did as Bud suggests you could do the front and backs on different boards so that when glued together you had a thicker, stronger, and better looking leg.

Just my opinion,

You could do as Doc suggests. Further, you could make your Design/board longer (say 55"), move everything to the Left of center, and then "Mirror the design to the Right. With a thicker board, you could, still, attempt a 2-sided carve.

The 2 legs, being equal distance from the ends would change/alter the way you might attack the 2nd side. I would turn the board end-for-end rather than top-to-bottom as normal. I would eliminate any "Cut-outs" on the 1st carve. This could be a 2-sided carve or just a 2nd design without the Cut-outs.
AskBud

[Steven Alford]

Are you looking for something like this?

That's perfect Mark, thanks. What about the eyelet half way up the leg? I want that to be cut through the wood. Can I just assign a pierce to it? Or will that cause problems on a two sided carve?

Also Doc, I like the idea of doing two one sided legs and gluing them together. I will try that also.
You guys are awesome!!

[pine acres woodshop]

I'm not sure about the pierce function. You could set the depth of the cut from both sides so it is shy of cutting through so it doesn't fall out and cause damage, your just left with some clean up once you finish the cut out by hand.

[Steven Alford]

Steven,
This one is going to be fun!
Your 1/2" thickness may be a bit too thin, but you can play with your options.
Let's just start on the Outline & Dome first.
1) Hold down the CTRL and highlight both the "Line1" and the "C Filagree"(on the foot).
2) Click the Outline Icon. This gives you 2 paths.
3) Delete the small path on the knee and click outside of all designs.
4) Highlight the Leg path (it should look like the attached picture).
5) Click the Region Icon.
6) Click on the Select Surface Icon and choose the Vertical Dome.
7) Set your Depth and Heght.
8] You will now, probably, need to go to each Filagree and make them additive.
9) Go to Edit and SELECT ALL. (You may not need the Spline)
10) Click on GROUP.
11) Now hold CTRL and highlight GROUP as well. (This should activate the "Make Pattern" Icon, if you can make a pattern you may be home free).
If not, you have lots of repositioning to do on the back of your board after you do a COPY & PASTE.

It's 1:34am DST in Ohio, so I'll sign off for now.
AskBud


Thanks for the help Bud. I am trying to do as you instruct but I am having problems with the dome. I have it to the point where you have pictured in the attachment. You can see the dome. But as soon as I make any of the filigrees additive, the dome disappears.

Is the dome really gone, or is it just an optical illusion? I also change the wood to 3/4".

[AskBud]

Steven,
Check your PM file.
AskBud

[Steven Alford]

Are you looking for something like this?

Mark,
I have taken your work and modified it a little and it is going to work. I thank you for your hard work.
I do have a question for future projects though. How in the world did you get the items on the front side on to the back side and get them all lined up??

I tried everything. I even spent a good hour on the phone with Bud and we could not figure it out. You can't make a pattern out of them because it contains things that aren't a pattern, whatever that means!! You can't just copy/paste from the front because it faces the wrong direction, it needs to be flipped. But you can't flip it because it doesn't flip everything. It's the only software that I have ever seen that has a flip feature that doesn't flip!!! You can't mirror the objects because this stupid software won't let you delete the original objects thus letting you keep just the mirrored objects. Correct me if I am wrong but isn't that one the purposes of doing a mirror, so that you can delete the original and have the opposite??? There are way to many limitations with this software, even as good as it is!!

Please let me know how you did it.

[pine acres woodshop]

Your welcome glad you could use it. When I copied and pasted it, I selected all and pasted the whole piece, I used flip horizontal to flip the leg, that is the only thing that would flip, like you said it was not lined up. First remove any attachments you have on dimensions or centering. I would then move each piece to where it would approximately go. Then I would look at the front side and one measurement at a time I would adjust the measurement on the back side making sure that it was measuring from the same point and measuring in the correct direction, because the dimensions where so close to the center line it was easy to measure to the wrong side of center. That's it.

[Steven Alford]

Thanks Mark, I will give it a try.

[Steven Alford]

OK, I have redesigned the thing and figured out how to do the 2-sided stuff.
This explanation is for the people that are like me, new and dumb!! (nothing personal!!) This is for version 1.15, don't know if things are different for 1.152.

If you are putting just ONE pattern on the front and ONE on the back, things are pretty self explanatory. But if you are using an arrangement of several patterns, like me, then things get a little hairy.

First, arrange the patterns on your board the way you want them. Making sure you get everything set; depth, height, etc. Do not put in any extra carve regions, cut lines, etc. Just the patterns or it will not make a new pattern for you. (I found it works better if you try to make sure your group of patterns is centered as a whole on your board so that when you put them on the backside, you can center it and you are half way there). Now select all the patterns and make a group out of them. De-select them and then in the carve list on the left side of your screen, click on the word "Group". This will turn on the icon "Make Pattern" which is the blue shell with a star on it. Click on the icon and the dialog box opens allowing you to name it and put it where you want. If it says that it contains things that are no-pattern, then you have included something you cannot.

Now go to the backside of your board and set things up the way they are on the front side, keeping in mind that you want the mirror image of the front. I use a sled with all my carves so within my sled size I have a rectangle drawn that represents the actual piece of wood inside the sled. Now, go to the place in your pattern list where you saved the new pattern and place it on this backside, making sure to center the new pattern. With mine, for some reason the carve depth of this new pattern was automatically set at 4"????? believe it or not!! So what I got was a pattern you could see through. Just change the depth to .25 or whatever and it should be fine.

Now go to the "Flip Vertically" or Horizontally, which ever fits your situation and you should get what you want. Because you set it to center, it should be correct in one direction but you might have to adjust it in the other direction. Because you made a pattern out of the whole thing, every thing moves at the same time, which is good. Turn on the grid and set it to 1/8" so that you can see if they are lined up correctly.

The best way to move your pattern in small increments is to click on the pattern, hold down the ALT key and at the same time click the arrow key that points in the direction you want the pattern to go.

Hope this helps. I have attached my file so that you can see what I did.

I am trying to do this table leg so that it has a rounded look to it. But after applying a vertical dome to the carve region of the leg and then adding the pattern, there is no visible dome. You can see the dome perfectly on the front side because each pattern is separate. It disappears on the backside when you add the newly created pattern. Can anyone fix this for me and tell us how you did it????

I still have to complete the carve, I have not added a cut path.

[Steven Alford]

I correct myself, the first side of my carve also has the newly made pattern, not the individual original patterns.

Can anyone get the dome to show up on the carve of the leg?

[Steven Alford]

Another question....
Why can't I change the height of the pattern to much over 375?? When I do, the pattern disappears. No other pattern does this. Maybe a flaw with 1.15??

[TIMCOSBY]

easier to do front and back at the same time so to speak. i.e. draw something on the front then move to back, draw something on front the go to back and so on instead of drawing everything on the front then trying to get it to the back . seems to work better for me.

[Steven Alford]

That is pretty much what I did. The only thing I did all at once was put the separate patterns on the front all at once, arrange them the way I wanted and then "cloned" them (so to speak) and then put the new pattern on the back. Each step after that was done one at a time on each side.

[cestout]

For positioning, another option instead of centering, is to attach the pattern to the top or bottom edge and to the end or vertical center. You then copy the pattern, go to the back paste it and flip it vertically and position it by attaching it as you did on the front.
Clint

[Steven Alford]

That is also good information. But keep in mind you can only copy and paste a single pattern to the back side and then flip. If you try that with several patterns without first making a pattern out of them, when you go to flip them once they are on the back side, they will flip in all directions except the direction you want them to.

Are there no takers on my challenge to figure out why I can't get a dome on my chair leg???