That’s what’d be nice. A great software program for surfboard shaping. Things like, scanning a magazine pic or use an internet pic, drop in in the program, and start adjusting!
Any ideas???
if you get good with Adobe Photoshop, it can prove quite beneficial. as for something designed specifically for shaping surfboards…not within our price range (although i believe there’s a Swaylocker planning on putting some time into R&D for one).
There’s a bloke called John Gillis who has done a lot of work on software and shaping machines in Australia. I had a quick look at the software one day and it seemed pretty flexible…try googling him with surfboard in the must include line on advanced search.
photoshop is very expensive, but it’s easily downloadable on any file sharing program. NOT THAT I ADVOCATE PIRACY or anything like that, uhhhh…yeah! i played around with surfboardsinteractive.com back in the day when it was free. it was fun, but you couldn’t print a template or anything. i don’t know how much it’s changed since then.
I’m using a demo version of Shape 3D. Here is the website: http://www.shape3d.com/
While the demo version does not allow saving or export, they have no way to stop you from taking a screen shot.
What I’m doing currently is combining Shape 3D with a great article I found here about using Adobe Illustrator - a 2D illustration program - to draw scaleable planshapes: http://www.swaylocks.com/resources/detail_page.cgi?ID=622
I use Plan mode in Shape 3D to produce a .GIF outline drawing of what I want, and then draw over this outline in Adobe Illustrator. I then follow the instructions in the article to produce full-size paper templates with near-perfect symmetry.
I’ve done about 20 boards with the method described in the article, and have then integrated in my own Shape 3D method for the last five.
P-shop is OK, but it’s not the best for graphics apps, it really shines when manipulating imagery. I wouldn’t buy it for that purpose. It is bitmap based, meaning it thinks in terms of pixels. Many illustration/graphics programs which use a combo bitmap/vector approach will be much more comprehensive and user friendly when dealing with tweaking curves, etc. (adobe illustrator, for example)
wells
There is another program. APS3000. It is a full version, the same exact version used by all the well known shapers that helped us test it. You can save boards, email them around, create a life size view with the help of a projector (1:1 function), compare different boards (ghost function) , etc…
click on software → download → and enjoy.
Works on all major operating systems.
Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.
Jimmy
I agree with Wells about photoshop since it’s bitmapped. For plan shapes I’ve used CorelDraw. Expensive, but it is vector-based and can manipulate the curve of lines in a number of different ways to connect them very smoothly. I get these plotter-printed on 36" wide paper at a blueprint place, and there’s enough width to include a rocker outline on the same sheet.