With this release you can finally edit the vertical thickness profile using a single parameter in an exponential function. See the example below:
The file “exponentialProfiles.pdf” that you can find here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/finfoil/files/ , shows different profiles for differen constants. If you uncheck the “Use exponential thickness profile” checkbox, the quadratic profile of versions <=0.3 is used.
Version 0.4 can be installed in parallel with version 0.3, but feel free to uninstall v0.3 since all it’s functionality is still included in v0.4 .
I hope you’ll enjoy it,
Hans
The following text describes finFoil v0.3 (still valid for v0.4):
Edit the fin using the path edit tool (red arrow). Use your mouse and the tools indicated by the green rectangles:
Make sure the ID of the path is "fin", otherwise finFoil won't know which path to parse. Now you have only one path, but there could be several in an svg file.
(this should be OK in the test.svg file)
Right click the fin and select "Object Properties":
Save the file and import it in the finfoil program:
**How to trace a fin From an image**
Use the import function from inkscape to import an image:
Browse for the image on your filesystem
Choose to link the image. This way the SVG file will stay small, since only a link to the image is inserted. finFoil will also work with embed.
Scale the image while pressing the Ctrl button. This way, the aspect ratio of the image will stay equal.
The image will sit on top of the fin path, use "Lower to bottom" to send it to te bottom. And use the transformation tools if needed:
Edit the fin to fit the image:
I hope you enjoy this release, and I hope to see people using this application to foil their plywood (or ...) fins.
What are the difficulties you are having? Maybe I can make the tutorial clearer, I tried to make it as clear as possible, but input from you would be very helpfull.
The manual input should be easy to use. When you get the hang of how inkscape works, the SVG input should work very fast. But it is indeed harder than it should be.
I don’t have time to implement an easy to use editor. I made this inkscape workaround because I found out that the manual input wasn’t ideal. The combination with inkscape allows to design very accurate, but there is indeed a learning curve.
Thanks for taking the time to write the CODE.....haha!
I was playing around with both finFoil and inkscape last night.
My issue was that once I drew the fin plainshape in inscape, designated the figure as "fin" and saved it as SVG file I could not import it into finFoil.
I'd hit "Browse", find the correct file, but when i hit "Generate" nothing happens. The manual input works though.
It said there was some error, and to check the log, but I could not find the log.
This file should work, afterwards you can edit this path to your fin design.
The problem is that not every SVG feature is supported by my code and that I haven’t implemented logging or errorhandling. As long as you use smooth curves, the code should work.
The idea is to make a tool that suggests a good hydrodynamic profile for the fin you want to make. So that the backyarder has an idea how the fin needs to be foiled.
Suppose you have a fin blank with layers of a fixed thickness (like plywood), the different colors will be the different layers of the fin panel.
My idea is that the fin foiling is still done by hand.
In the distant future some export formats will be supported, but that’s not my main goal. (this also answers red_boards)
The reason I wrote this code, is for my own use and because I’ve seen some badly foiled fins here on swaylocks (read: fins with a little bit sanding on the trailing and leading edge. Luckily most guys here do a pretty good job). This code generates the NACA 4digit profile, which has proven to be well suited for surfboard fins. And I hope that this code will help a lot of backyard fin builders to foil their fins.
i tried out your program. it was pretty cool. i started off with a simple spitfire fin profile that i had a pic of from solo. it looked so good and simple that i gave it the hardest thing i could come up with-- one of robin mair’s hammer quad outlines that knowaloha posted here on a lime green coil. i wasn’t copying, but roughly drew the outline off a fuzzy pic because i had such respect for the quality of the fins hanalei put out and how advanced and challenging to manufacture that the design seems to be. the finfoil output was a little funky, and carried very little thickness up into the head of the fin, but it was all an experiment so i kept pretty true to the program’s suggestion. i printed it actual size, and stuck the printouts to folder stock, then cut them out. i did fix a bit of weirdness in the upper neck area by just cutting the fair line through the contour wobbles. it was very minor.
i took these templates and traced them on some corecork scraps. i’m not sure whether it was 2mm or thinner. i’ll have to go back and check. i cut these layers out, spray 77’d them to 2 oz e-glass, and razored them out again. i then took the cutouts and stacked them on a sheet of waxed plate glass with black pigged RR epoxy on all faces. i cut some ball-end stick pins to the precise thickness/depth to serve as registration pins and vacuum bagged it flat overnight at about 16 inches of mercury. the next day i knocked the fins off the glass and have yet to trim the flash and fair the contour layers, but they look quite good and are amazingly light. i’ll shape them out, trim and thin the base, and give them another outside glassing when i get the time staked out and the weather improves for glass work.
Thanks for taking your time to try it out and document it!
The thickness profile results in a thin fintip, indeed. I’m working on a in-program graphical editor, when that is finished you will also be able to design this profile.
However, it is not that much work to make it possible to choose from multiple thickness profiles. I’ll try to do that asap and release the code.
I added the possibility to change the thickness profile using an exponential function.
In the image below, the dashed line shows the quadratic profile that was used by versions <=0.3, the other profiles are examples of the exponential profile, with there characteristic constants.
See the following images as an example:
I hope you guys like this functionality. Watch swaylocks for release of v0.4 during the coming week.
But I still feel that I got more from swaylocks than I’ve given back. This is a place where everybody shares his knowledge and stoke, this is a win-win situation!
I’m also an open source fan. All the software I run is free and open source, and so is finFoil. (I don’t use windows or mac, I use Linux, so the installer for v0.4 will be available when I have acces to a windows computer at my work).
The same is true for BoardCAD, the open source board design program. These guys wrote some beautiful software for this community!
With
this release you can finally edit the vertical thickness profile using a
single parameter in an exponential function. See the example below:
The
file “exponentialProfiles.pdf” that you can find here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/finfoil/files/ , shows different
profiles for differen constants. If you uncheck the “Use exponential thickness profile” checkbox, the quadratic profile of versions <=0.3 is used.
Version 0.4 can be installed in
parallel with version 0.3, but feel free to uninstall v0.3 since all
it’s functionality is still included in v0.4 .
yeah, your program really is cool. i wouldn’t have been drawn to stack slices without it. process adapts to make use of the toolset available. thanks for your contribution and open-source spirit, in terms of both software and surfboards. this release seems to be a big step up with your thickness profile additions. still, i’m excited to get models done from my v0.3 outputs and test drive them. it’s all about the design>build>test cycle; the fun’s in the doing.
still lagging on my end. the warm weather is back, but i’ve been busy and unable to get up to my shop to do any “wet” work. however, i have rough-faired the fins concetrating on symmetry, and they look really good. at this point, they look more old-school thick at the base than thin at the tip, but until it gets the rest of the glass, it’s fragile out there in the claw of the hammer. the next step will be to mud them with some epoxy/DE/silica plus white pig and knock them fair again. i should get contrasting contour lines to make it easier to see. then i can topglass and tool the base to finish.
soon come. i’m hoping more pics this week. there’s another skateboard ready to bag as well, so i’m itching to get some work done.
