Importing an illustrator file could be added to boardcad, but it's not trivial. However we could add morphing from one outline to another quite easily. Added to the todo list.
Illustrator does have a DXF export. I exported a DXF file from Illustrator for a custom template that the very nice folks at Ice9 Foamworks cut on their STRINGAMAJIG CNC stringer cutter (which is essentially a cutomized vacuum table CNC router). The template came out quite nice. So maybe a BoardCAD DXF import might be more reasonable.
Use the < key to cycle through the tangents and center point of a control point
Hmm, that’s not working for me.
Another thing that’s a significant advantage about this program though is that you can move a point, on the nose, for example, and the rocker number changes immediately, before you let go of the point–that’s pretty handy.
One thing that I have been meaning to ask you about is that why is it when I load a background image in the rocker view, the thing won’t let me grab it.
There are little things, but that one kinda…
Where is the best latest non-web iteration? I seem to have gone back to web-based somehow.
One thing that I have been meaning to ask you about is that why is it when I load a background image in the rocker view, the thing won’t let me grab it.
You can print from any program to pdf with a pdf printer driver. A search on google will give you hundreds of alternatives. I personally use bullzip, but there might be better alternatives (tho there sure are worse, a coupld have very intrusive buy now messages). On mac you can print directly to pdf without installing any addons (or so I’m told). However there have been issues with printing from boardcad on mac.
Pdf directly from boardcad may be added, but this solution is actually quite good.
I just took a screenshot of a BoardCad board in Outline/Profile view (shift + Print Screen), pasted it into Paint.net’s paint program (available at paint.net–“expand canvas” to fit the picture), saved it as a JPG on my desktop, and printed it perfectly scaled from the Windows default print set-up, for what it’s worth. Quick and easy.
For printing full scale Profile/Outline templates or any scale you want really… I like to export .dxf from BoardCAD and send it to a plotting center… Just find a plotting center that does service for Engineers and Architects…
The scaling factor for the .dxf exports that comes out of BoardCAD at the moment is wrong, but it is very easy to fix that… just scale up the .dxf exports to +1000 and it’s all good. I’m sure thats something the BC team can fix with a blink of an eye.
That PDF Download add-on for Firefox is neat–thanks for that.
The rocker view still won’t let me grab the background image, but I just use Akushaper for looking at things from pics now.
But my **new *discovery isn’t BoardCAD or Aku specific–it’s a Windows thing I think–if you hold down the Ctrl and Alt keys and hit a direction arrow key you can flip your monitor view so you can see your board upright. I have a hard time seeing the curves in symmetry when the board is laying down, so this solved that. Useful when you view the outline and profile together in BoardCAD.
I also like using this with the feature in the Cross-section view where you can expand the bottom frame to see the outline and profile right next to each other in large size without control points.
Thanks again Haavard. I recently had a profile print go awry – I may e-mail you the file to take a look if I can’t get it to work–weird thing–the deck points were apparently corrupted or something.
*I take no responsibility for your use of this feature as a prank in the workplace or anywhere else… ; )
