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Drawing Software

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I am thinking to make a drawing like I have in the past and find I am STILL NOT good at putting crooked lines together the way they should..

I am thinking to start learning some software to make 3D sketches and of course the software MUST be Free..

This would be to create detailed drawing of some of my inventions and lures..

I am taking a strong look at SketchUp from Google..

( http://sketchup.google.com/product/gsu.html ) ..

Do you use software to design your inventions / lures??

What do you use ??

Are there any pro's and con's I should be looking for..

What other questions should I be asking ??

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I am thinking to make a drawing like I have in the past and find I am STILL NOT good at putting crooked lines together the way they should..

I am thinking to start learning some software to make 3D sketches and of course the software MUST be Free..

This would be to create detailed drawing of some of my inventions and lures..

I am taking a strong look at SketchUp from Google..

( http://sketchup.goog...roduct/gsu.html ) ..

Do you use software to design your inventions / lures??

What do you use ??

Are there any pro's and con's I should be looking for..

What other questions should I be asking ??

I tried a bunch of freeware and open source stuff. Finally I broke down and bought ViaCad 2d/3d. Its not free, but at $99 its not expensive either. It exports 3D STL files that work with my CAM software with no problems. It also exports DXF files that are great for all the 2D elelements if I want both to work with in CAM. I tried Heeks Cad. I tried ProgeCad (their free one is 3d crippled). I tried GMax or whatever its called. I tried probably tried 20 different freeware and open soruce programs that ran, and another 20-30 that I was never able to generate a line with. HeeksCad does appear to have potential, but it kept crashing my computers.

For 2D stuff G-Simple is ok. It can also generate G-code, but I found it awkward to use that way. Inkscape is a free graphic editor that's not bad. I use it to trace the outlines of bitmaps. Then I expeort generic SVG files to be used in my CAM for engraving.

In my experince ViaCad was the cheapest thing that mostly worked for 3D, Some things you have to do by using work arounds, but you can generate a 3D solid the first time you use it.

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Blender is the best supported open source 3D package, in my opinion. There are lots of users and some very talented developers donating their time to the project. It will output STL files that can be sent to a 3D printer as well.

Out of curiosity, is anyone else using 3D printing? There are some service agencies that are fairly reasonable for output, but I've also been looking at these homebrew machines. Anyone tried to build their own?

-sam

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Blender is the best supported open source 3D package, in my opinion. There are lots of users and some very talented developers donating their time to the project. It will output STL files that can be sent to a 3D printer as well.

Out of curiosity, is anyone else using 3D printing? There are some service agencies that are fairly reasonable for output, but I've also been looking at these homebrew machines. Anyone tried to build their own?

-sam

You forgot the link..

http://www.blender.org/education-help/tutorials/tutorial-folder/blender-user-interface-tutorial/

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I use blender to mock up everything to run on my cnc and it works great.

The only things you really need to know on that software are how to sub-divide the cube, select faces, lines or points, playing with the sculpt mode and picking the multires to smooth everything out.

free and it works amazingly well

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3Dmax or Blender are a good software to do the design of the lures. But, What software can I use to simulate the lure in the water? I know that the crankbaits manufaturers use this software to see the action, movement, before start the first prototipe.

The software that I think that you are talking about is called 'computational fluid dynamics' or CFD. It will give a graphic representation of how the water will flow around a fixed object. The computations are massive and complex. Last time I checked, it takes many hours to achieve the result. It could be used to show the flow around a lure, but it will not show how the lure will move. Also the software is very expensive and very complex to use.

The success or failure of a lure is a fine balance of lip (size and shape), ballast (hooks and weight), and most of all tow eye position. I list the tow eye position as the most significant adjustment, because the water flow around the body will be consistant given a particular body shape, lip shape and ballast, but tweak the tow eye position and the action changes dramatically. CFD software, as far as I am aware, only deals with shapes, it does not take into account weight distribution, buoyancy or movement.

The best tool that you have available for determining whether a lure will swim or not, and as an engineer who likes to calculate things it really pains me to say this, is experience. Build your prototypes, fit the hooks and top coat (very important) and swim it. Then make one change at a time and keep notes.

Dave

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3Dmax or Blender are a good software to do the design of the lures. But, What software can I use to simulate the lure in the water? I know that the crankbaits manufaturers use this software to see the action, movement, before start the first prototipe.

Maybe there is software that Nascar uses that would obviously work for lures..

It is nice to hear that this thread is going in many directions but I was originally thinking to draw out the lures with software and them print.. This would be better for me personally because of not only because I am a shitty sketcher but also my body does not do what I wish it to do most of time and is very frustrating..

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Maybe there is software that Nascar uses that would obviously work for lures..

It is nice to hear that this thread is going in many directions but I was originally thinking to draw out the lures with software and them print.. This would be better for me personally because of not only because I am a shitty sketcher but also my body does not do what I wish it to do most of time and is very frustrating..

The Google Sketch Up might be the a place to start, I have not used it much. It is free and it makes 3D shapes.

You might look at Inkscape at www.inkscape.org

I havn't used it much but it might be the best place for you to start.

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As far as simulations goes, I had a conversation with my local SolidWorks rep and the feasibility is getting closer, but the cost is enormous at this point. And the feasibility is still questionable, given the same criteria that Dave mentioned above. There are bunches of variables that have to be taken into account such as bait orientation at the start of retrieve, line angle, etc. that make the outcome of these sorts of test overly complicated and potentially inaccurate.

The hardware is the least of the issues. Putting together a cluster of machines for parallel computing to crunch the numbers could probably be achieved fairly inexpensively by employing an array of jailbroken PS3s. That cuts that calc time considerably, but you're still nowhere close to real-time simulation.

The software development probably runs in the 100k range before you'd get a good idea of feasibility. Also, right now you'd probably have to run on a proprietary system, such as SolidWorks, instead of rolling your own in an open platform, such as Blender, which is personally unappealing.

What I am interested in is setting up a homebrew 3D printer to print molds, rather than bait prototypes, and pour and test from there. IMO, that's the most direct path to increasing iterations and faster prototyping.

-Sam

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What I am interested in is setting up a homebrew 3D printer to print molds, rather than bait prototypes, and pour and test from there. IMO, that's the most direct path to increasing iterations and faster prototyping.

There are two or three home kits around. If you google 'rapid prototype kit' you will find them. But the resolution is not good enough for molds yet. You could maybe 3D print a master, but you would still have to work on it with filler and sand paper, to get the finish that you need.

There are companies that offer a 3D rapid prototype service, using top of the range equipment, but the service is not cheap. I cannot remember the pricing exactly, but it was more than $100 for part of a turbo charger housing, which was quite small. If I had $50,000 to spare, I would buy one in an instant. The home build kits are around $1000.

Dave

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