Radius Templates

[Laurence Finston]

Inspired by a discussion on cambered fingerboards for guitars, I've made a set of technical drawings for "radius templates". They can be printed out onto cardstock and used for testing whether a curved surface has the correct radius. They can also be used for drawing curves and probably for other things as well.

Acrylic, metal or some other material would be even better, if you've got a cutting plotter or access to a CNC machine.

I've posted two PDF files along with their source code here: The GNU 3DLDF Technical Drawing Page

[whulsey]

Thanks, about my ability level but maybe if I keep working at it.

[Laurence Finston]

You're welcome. What exactly do you mean about it being above your ability level? If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

They could also be used to model a surface. In that case, they should be changed somewhat, arranged differently on the page, and/or certain ones should be repeated on the page. None of these things would be particularly difficult for me to do. One could, of course, figure out how to do it oneself, but I think the hurdles to doing so would be fairly high just for one set of technical drawings.

[sreinmann]

I like the center finder tool also listed on the page. I try to use a circle cutter since it has a more reliable arc cut than I have by free hand. But not all part sheets have the real estate to provide the center mark and I’m left “mathing” and “geometringing” my way to get as close as I can. Printing these on demand would give me a leg up and speed that process for sure. thanks for posting these.

[Laurence Finston]

Originally Posted by sreinmann

I like the center finder tool also listed on the page.

Thanks. I've tried them and they work.

Originally Posted by sreinmann

Printing these on demand would give me a leg up and speed that process for sure. thanks for posting these.

You're welcome. Please let me know if you need any other sizes, markings or whatever. Increments of .25mm are extremely small, but you never know. I'd be happy to do a version in inches, if anyone wants one. Or furlongs, for that matter.

By the way, I'll probably be buying both of these tools as soon as the exchequer allows: Center Finder | FINE TOOLS

[Laurence Finston]

I've added a set of "rectangle templates": The GNU 3DLDF Technical Drawing Page

I need to draw a 10cm x 12cm rectangle multiple times, so I decided to make a set of templates. They go from 8cm x 8cm to 10.25cm x 12cm in increments of .25cm. I chose these values because the templates created fit two on a DIN A4 page. If they were much smaller, I could fit more on and if they were any wider or much taller, only one would fit on a page.

Of course, it would be fairly easy to do these things, or to make even bigger ones and put them on a DIN A3 page. I may get around to doing this. The problem with DIN A3, however, is that I don't have a DIN A3 printer and I can't print onto 300g/m2 paper at a copyshop.

[Laurence Finston]

It didn't take long to cut out the one I need. Here are a couple of photos.

[Laurence Finston]

I've uploaded a second version. With this one, the entire inner rectangles aren't cut out. Instead, only sections along the inner edges are (see attached JPEG file).

This requires considerably more cutting but makes the template as a whole more stable. For many applications, the original, simpler version could be used.

Link: The GNU 3DLDF Technical Drawing Page "Rectangle Templates 2".

[Laurence Finston]

As long as I did the rectangles, I thought I'd do a set of templates for regular polygons.

I've now done regular pentagons, hexagons, heptagons, octagons, nonagons and decagons with diameters from 4cm to 10cm in increments of .25cm.

The PDF file is here: https://www.gnu.org/software/3dldf/g...emplates_1.pdf

It's on this page: The GNU 3DLDF Technical Drawing Page

[Laurence Finston]

For anyone who might want to modify any of the templates I've posted on this thread, I've written an article, "An introduction to GNU 3DLDF". It is due to appear in the next regular issue of the journal TUGboat, The Communications of the TeX Users Group, Vol. 43, No. 3, toward the end of 2022: https://www.gnu.org/software/3dldf/D...ston-3dldf.pdf

See also: The GNU 3DLDF Website

TUGboat home page: TUGboat - Communications of the TeX Users Group

This article should make it much easier for anyone who wanted to try out the program. A major reason for making drawings this way (i.e., programming them) is so that they can be parameterized. It wouldn't be difficult to adapt the drawings by modifying the parameters, e.g., to have the programs generate different sized objects or to use inches instead of centimeters, etc.