basic aps3000 questions...

#1 i have been screwing around with aps3000 and was wondering how i start a board from scratch. the only way i can do anything is to start with one of the Generic templets…

#3 say i am working on a fish and i know i want the tail 11" tip to tip… what would be an easy way to establish this?

#2 i have a number of large data sets from my measuring for the eps rocker cuts on a cnc hotwire machine, basically a number of boards rocker and deck measured, then run through excel with smoothing logerithm applied (thank god i live with some Phd scintests) can i enter the data sets into aps3000 as starting points for a new board…

mucho thankso

john

I’m curious to hear the answers to these questions as well.

I used the 6’2 template to make a fish outline and am having a hard time adding a point on the stringer to pull in the swallow.

I’m basing it off of a current board and I could get a fair amount of data sets from the rocker and outline if that was an option to start a fresh board.

BTW, thanks for the print option updates. Very nice.

nice work. you have made it further then i…

i went through all the readings and it seems the import outline/ profial from a photo will be my next attempt…

where are the pros?

The Image Board-Outline function is the trick. Once I got my picture in there the right size and oriented correctly, it was quick and easy to copy the outline.

You might have to adjust the size and rotate your outline picture in a graphics program before you import it. I didn’t see a way to manipulate the photo after you brought it in, so I made sure I sized it and turned it the right way first outside of the APS program.

That boards looks right, but the swallow is totally off how I did it. I got it to look how I wanted but it’s not right. I pulled two curves from the tail way in but it’s got long tail hanging off directly off the stringer. I couldn’t figure out how to pull that blue point at the tail in to create the swallow.

Hopefully jimmyfreese can chime in for us, I’m sure they’re busy guys though.

I believe I read here that you cannot do a 100% fish outline with the machine and the design tool reflects that.

You would have to cut the tail out manually.

So, design an outline that is fish-like and when you get it back from the machine operator, just hacksaw out the tail, smooth out the curves.

thanks for the tips.

i am really not worried about the swallow it self. more about just making the tail wide easily and more about starting a board from scratch… easy enough if you have a board of a certin type but say i want to make a 8’8" single fin 70’s gun and don’t have one around to photograph… start with the 9’0" generic LB temp?

You can do that, or you can just plot out the guide points.

Or you can download a few board templated from their website and modify those a little.

Well I have tried to download the programme as stated, downloaded the Java file as stated and I cannot get the thing to work at all, it took ages, then got a screen come up with an outline, then the whole thing crashed my computer… Have tried and tried to get the thing to reload and it’s testing my sense of humour! Using Windows ME…is this compaptable???

#1 i have been screwing around with aps3000 and was wondering how i start a board from scratch. the only way i can do anything is to start with one of the Generic templets…

-start with one of the generic boards. couple things i check before i start each board

  1. in outline view, i like to keep the middle tangent horizontal as this ensures you control of the wide point of your board. to do this, zoom in closer and closer and make sure the line is horizontal.

#3 say i am working on a fish and i know i want the tail 11" tip to tip… what would be an easy way to establish this?

-use the guide points. if you know you want the 12" tail point to be 11" wide, then you would enter this in the guide points. in the horizontal column you would enter 12", this column is the distance measured from the tail. in the vertical column you would enter 5.5". make sure the box for show guide points is checked in the show/hide category. you’ll see a small red x show up on the outline. you can put in as many of these points as you want then try to get a nice curve through these points.

#2 i have a number of large data sets from my measuring for the eps rocker cuts on a cnc hotwire machine, basically a number of boards rocker and deck measured, then run through excel with smoothing logerithm applied (thank god i live with some Phd scintests) can i enter the data sets into aps3000 as starting points for a new board…

mucho thankso

-use the guide points, you can use them for outline, rocker, top, slice. they’re a sick feature.

john

thank you.

i put in a bunch more hrs and am getting the hang of it… i’ll be stopping by some day in the future…

Yea boys.

Regarding Swallows:

Duncan is right, the program doesn’t allow for those designs. This is because the software is mainly designed for use with APS3000 machine, but it’s also a useful design tool.

Regarding guide points:

Proshapes is correct that guide points are useful when designing a new board based of measurements. The use is talked about in the tutorial. Sorry if it’s a little rough, we’re working on making that one a little more pretty, it’s on the list.

Regarding manipulating images:

On this one, the software is not able to do image manipulation, that has to be done in a some photo software. It just needs to be rotated the right way, size of the image isn’t an issue.

Kudu222 and using Win ME:

I would guess that your problem is that you’re using an operating system that is over 8 years old. I think java has trouble with that. Sorry, without seeing it, on this one the only advice I can give is you might need to get a newer computer.

You can try to do a search on java J2SE 5.0 JRE/SDK or java webstart 1.5.0 and Windows ME and see if there are an issues there with them talking to eachother.

Good luck and let me know there are any more questions. A good place to start is the tutorials and even just opening the help page has a little quick reference that briefly talks about a few of the features and how to work them.

Jimmy

I started pulling things (the red point and the yellow point) around at the tail–you get a boomerang, or a tail, if you leave the crack more open, but you ignore that and it pulls a good swallow and you can experiment further to make it more pointy or swallowy, ala Brom or Frye or MR.

edit: Oh I was not careful reading–if you’re actually machining with CNC this method won’t work obviously–but don’t you know you should be sawing the things out with a dull butter knife to keep the soul, man?

Jimmy

I have the framework loaded on my computer, but can’t get it to launch, other than logging onto the site and following the download instructions.

I have followed the guidelines to get it to load from the desktop, but with no luck, is this a usual problem?

This means that I have to be online to use the design tool, as I don’t have internet at work, it kind of limits my learning time!

Any way around this other than buying a shaping machine?

Hey Marky,

No need to be on the internet. Did you download the right java application? It should run fine if you have the right java download. 'Hope that helps.

Rio

you might be able to set your browser to Offline mode and load the cached webpage from your history to start it.

No that’s not a normal problem. It could depend on a couple of things, as mentioned above could have to do with you downloading Java from Sun’s website.

But I’m wondering what type of operating system you have.

The version you download from the website is the full design version that all the shapers use, it can do everything required so there is no need to buy a machine if you don’t need one. Machines are nice but it can also be a useful design tool for handshapers (who want to keep the soul, as mentioned above).

Anyway, I suspect that it has something to do with either the way Java is installed on your machine or the operating system you’re using.

Also, the software can start online or offline, doesn’t matter. To get the updates you need to be online, but we send an email out once every few months when we do a new release. In that case, some guys that have a computer in a factory with no internet connection need to pick up their box and take it home to get updated, but for almost everyone there isn’t anything extra needed to be done.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Jimmy

Thanks for the clarification on the swallow tail. I figured that was the case but was just playing around with it. I’m just using the software to visualize a shape for a hollow wooden board. Planning on printing the full size stringer, outline, and slices (ribs) to build the framework. I finally just read the help section DUH!, tons of useful info in there about all the features.

I really like the feature of holding down the shift key and the slice view showing the full rail profile and how it transitions through the slices. It made me realize I had duplicated the tail slice and had hard rails to half way up the board. Some really neat features once you really start playing around with it. Thanks again for putting this out there free of charge.

Just out of curiosity, are there any APS3000 machines in Florida?

Yep, no worries.

Sorry no machines in Florida yet, there is one arriving in NC in the next couple weeks. Wrightsville glassing.

Stoked you’ve read some of the help, even the reference card give a lot of quick info. I recommend people just give that one a quick check.

Jimmy

Hi jimmy

thanks for the reply, I am on windows xp (home).

I have downloaded the latest java application from the link on your site (J2SE runtime environment 5.0 update 7 ?).

I have the aps3000 icon in the ‘add remove programs’ list, together with all the java applications.

I have tried to follow the instructions on the site to get an icon on my desktop, but can only get as far as the ‘add remove programs’ list.

Without the icon, I can’t launch without visiting the site everytime.

Please tell me if I have missed something here!!!

The program works just fine when I am online, but if i click on one of my saved board designs, nothing happens unless i am online.

Very sorry Mark. I looked into what was going with Windows and it looks like things have changed with them. The new instructions on getting an icon on the desktop are below, and I also changed them on the site.

Basically when you used to click ‘Add and Remove Programs’ you now click on ‘Java’ in the control panel.

The java you downloaded should work fine.

Sorry for the confusion.

We wish Microsoft did a better job to accommodate Java, but they don’t cause they have their own competing version.

Please let me know if you have any problems.

Jimmy

The best way we know at this point to not have to open the software from this webpage every time is to follow these steps.

[]Launch the program from the link above. (That will install some install the framework for the program). []Go to Start → Control Panel []Click on the icon that says Java []Click on the Settings Button (near the bottom right) []Click on View Applications Button []Highlight the APS3000 application [] Then go to the Application menu (on top in the middle) [] Choose Install Short Cuts and you should have an icon on your desktop.