Silhouette SD

[Dave Schneider]

Hey Dave,

How do you dimension lines and shapes in the Sillhouette studio drawing program?

Donnell

Hi Donnell,

Sorry to have missed this earlier. I am not sure if I understand your question. I typically use the snap to grid parameters, and adjust the grid spacing to get the desired increment. When drawing, the dimensions of the shape are displayed. See below. To see this image at full resolution right click and select View Image.



Lines are displayed the same way. The only tricky part I have found is when I want to draw a diagonal line of a certain length. I usually draw it horizontally and then rotate it.
Is this what you are asking or have I only told you something you already know?

Best wishes, Dave

[SkipGear]

Finally started assembly of the station...

I pieced one section of the roof together.






Still amazed how tight and true everything assembled. Better than some kits I have built.

I painted the brick wall sheet and then added morter detail. It didn't have quite the contrast I wanted but fortunately the real building doesn't have a huge amount difference between the morter and brick color.





Here is the first wall assembled with the survey crew checking out things.



Here is a shot of the same wall on the real thing...



So far, so good. everything is fitting together as planned. Building in layers makes it easier to get the depth in the wall and paint parts seprately to keep paint lines clean. Waiting on the windows till I decide what color the trim should be.

[Dave Schneider]

That looks really great Tony! This is going to be a great building. Did you use the blade for scribing the bricks or one of Zox's custom scriibers? I couldn't tell whether you painted  the brick before or after the scribe. What are you going to do for windows?

Best wishes, Dave

[SkipGear]

Everything was done in one pass with the knife. I tried making a scribing tool but I didn't like the way it worked. I played around with the offset settings in the driver to somewhat over compensate for the extra drag of the styrene and improved the squareness of the corners.

After cutting, the sheet was airbrushed the brick color then a wash of creme/gray for the moarter joints. The washed toned down the overall color a bit which helped. I still need to do a dark wash along the bottom of the building. I think it is stains left over from the 1937 flood.

Windows are going to be two layers, the frame and then the glass. I am probably just going to scribe some lexan to make the smaller window panes. I had considered cutting mask on the lexan but the panes are going to be so small, and so numerous, I'm not sure. I have plenty of vinyl paint mask to experiment with. I even thought of laminating the clear with trim colored vinyl and then just pulling out the panes after cutting. Everything is drawn, just need to experiment. It needs to be repeatable because I need to make parts for a friend who is modeling the same station on his layout.

[SkipGear]

A little more progress tonight.

[James Costello]

That is seriously impressive Tony.

[DKS]

That is seriously impressive Tony.

+1

[sd80mac]

That does clear up many questions. Can you make a line a custom length or are you limited to snapping to grid? Also, is there a fillet feature? I know I'm asking a lot, but there are certain things I need to know before I invest in this machine.

I mentioned earlier that I would like to do some locomotive sides and parts and this is still the case. However, I am also a C&NW buff and am considering using either this machine or a custom etcher to produce car sides for their 80s business train. Some of the cars are commercially available from Walthers, but most of them were customized by the railroad, so these will require scratch-bashing.

Thanks Again,
Donnell

Hi Donnell,

Sorry to have missed this earlier. I am not sure if I understand your question. I typically use the snap to grid parameters, and adjust the grid spacing to get the desired increment. When drawing, the dimensions of the shape are displayed. See below. To see this image at full resolution right click and select View Image.



Lines are displayed the same way. The only tricky part I have found is when I want to draw a diagonal line of a certain length. I usually draw it horizontally and then rotate it.
Is this what you are asking or have I only told you something you already know?

Best wishes, Dave

[SkipGear]

That does clear up many questions. Can you make a line a custom length or are you limited to snapping to grid? Also, is there a fillet feature? I know I'm asking a lot, but there are certain things I need to know before I invest in this machine.

I mentioned earlier that I would like to do some locomotive sides and parts and this is still the case. However, I am also a C&NW buff and am considering using either this machine or a custom etcher to produce car sides for their 80s business train. Some of the cars are commercially available from Walthers, but most of them were customized by the railroad, so these will require scratch-bashing.

Thanks Again,
Donnell

I use CorelDraw to create my drawings. It allows you to draw in any scale. I switch back and forth between rulers set for 1:160 scale to replicate full size measurements and 1:1 to work with actual measurements of the material. With Corel at least, you can draw an object, then edit it's properties manually to whatever you need.

If I need a wall to be 22' long and 12' high. I set the ruler scale to 1:160, then draw a rectangle of close size. I then go in and edit the properties of the rectangle to 22x12. Working in N scale, sometimes it won't return an exact exact number because you are getting down to 10,000 of an real inch precision. I also make use of the adjustable guide lines a lot. I will draw in 3 view first, using the guides so I don't have to measure drawing, but transfer measurements from one to the next, like using a T-square on a drafting table.

I draw the initial outline of the building in 1:160 scale, then switch to 1:1 scale to draw items that will be made with stock material and to trim for overlaping corners and joints relative to the material thickness. I have another building I am working on that will use Tichy windows so I have to switch back to 1:1 scale to make the cutouts for them. I will have to fudge the actual building to match the Tichy windows.

[wazzou]

Really nice work Tony. 
I have a lot of things that I'd like to do with one of these machines, but don't know if I can afford to budget the time necessary to become proficient at drawing the files.

[Dave Schneider]

That does clear up many questions. Can you make a line a custom length or are you limited to snapping to grid? Also, is there a fillet feature? I know I'm asking a lot, but there are certain things I need to know before I invest in this machine.

I mentioned earlier that I would like to do some locomotive sides and parts and this is still the case. However, I am also a C&NW buff and am considering using either this machine or a custom etcher to produce car sides for their 80s business train. Some of the cars are commercially available from Walthers, but most of them were customized by the railroad, so these will require scratch-bashing.

Thanks Again,
Donnell

Donnel,

You can make lines and shapes any length you desire by deselecting the snap to grid option. As for fillets, these are done rather easily for things like passenger car windows. You can draw a rounded rectangle (top image below), and then slide the points that define the curve (the red squares in the bottom image). It does this for all of the corners at once. Does this answer your fillet question? It is also possible to cut these shapes anywhere you like and use the resulting segments.

This is a pretty nice design program IMO, considering it comes with the SSD at no additional cost.



Best wishes, Dave

[sd80mac]

Thanks Tony, for the explanation or your method.

And again, thank you Dave for the easy breakdown. I'm done with questions now...or at least until I can't figure how to get the thing to cut! ??? :'( :-[ :-\ >  ;D
Donnell

Donnel,

You can make lines and shapes any length you desire by deselecting the snap to grid option. As for fillets, these are done rather easily for things like passenger car windows. You can draw a rounded rectangle (top image below), and then slide the points that define the curve (the red squares in the bottom image). It does this for all of the corners at once. Does this answer your fillet question? It is also possible to cut these shapes anywhere you like and use the resulting segments.

This is a pretty nice design program IMO, considering it comes with the SSD at no additional cost.



Best wishes, Dave

[DKS]

I use CorelDraw to create my drawings.

Are you using the Cutting Master 2 for CraftROBO utility? How is that working out?

[SkipGear]

Are you using the Cutting Master 2 for CraftROBO utility? How is that working out?

David,
 I'm not using the Silhouette cutter. I'm using a Roland STX-8 that I have had for close to 10 years now. I learned to use Corel when cutting vinyl graphics and decals for the RC (radio control) industry and use it for everything since then. I've done graphics on everything from RC to full size race cars with it.

[SkipGear]

Continuing progess...



A quick mock up with the roof now. The roof may be completely scrapped as I am planning to build it with vollmer spanish tile instead of blank sheet. I was originally going to skin what I have with the Vollmer sheets but they are too thick and the resulting offset will make a mess.