michael mott

Joe, yes I know that is the case, The trade off for me is that I do not use even half the stuff you can do with LT. so the expense of the full version was not in my cards. I am also not willing to put in the time for the 3D functions in the programs that support it . I have used Rhino and Sketch-up, I found them just a bit too frustrating. when I need a 3D I work with a pencil and sketch it out in seconds. Michael

Excellent work Doris, your figures are wonderful. Michael

Sarah I have sent you a PM. Michael

Buck the mini me is not photo shopped I just printed a picture of myself and cut it out with a pair of sharp scissors. The low tech version of having fun, I stuck some raw treenail rod on the back of the photo so I could stick it anywhere on the deck before I filled the holes. Thanks for the compliment on the Bristol Cutter. Your restoration on the little boat is really nice. and I have filed away your neat trick with the cutters, that was very clever thinking. Michael

The first real harvesting of wood for a model was in 1975 when I was at the Ice-fields Campground At the Athabasca Glacier with my parents who were visiting from the UK. The firewood at the campground was about 16 inches long and had been roughly split into quarters It was extremely fine grained spruce, probably from close to treeline or a low moisture location am guessing that the rings were no more than a 1/128th inch apart. anyway I saved some for a model aircraft I was building at the time. I striped it into a small square section to bend for the tailplane. perimeter. Yes getting the wood from nature is a big plus, in my books. Michael

Bob, those look Nice. I have adobe illustrator I needed it for an Exhibition project that I did back in 2002 I never did like it, I prefer Corel for the bitmap stuff. I have been happily drawing all day. I am working on tracing the Colchester Smack There are some good images on the Betty CK 145 Website http://www.betty-ck145.com/docueng/smacks/smack_plans.html I am tracing it at full size in Autocad so that when the drawing is finished I hope to have a full set of plans to build an accurate model from. Once the plans are drawn full size in the cad environment it is simple to print them to any scale. I like working in full size because then there is no mucking about trying to sort out scale sizes. a 4x6 timber is drawn as a 4 x6 timber and so on. I don't have to do any mental gymnastics while drawing. The drawing on the link shows that the drawing of the Colchester smack at a scale of 1/90 my Corel file to PDF then imported to Autocad showed the length as 17point something inches I cannot remember the exact number at the moment. so using the 1/90 as a guide I did the math on the calculator to find the multiplier and scaled the PDF up so that the lines drawing was full size. It worked out to be 34feet 8 inches long. so at 1/24th scale it would be 17 inches or 34 inches at 1/12 scale and so on. I am really happy that you told me about the PDF's because I would not have tried that. and I much prefer to work in Cad I do find that I have to lock the layer that the PDF is on after it is re-sized though. Michael

Rocker, have a look at wooden venetian blinds, IKEA sell them and the wood is flat dry and thin, ideal for resawing on small tools. I am about 4000miles north west of where you are. I was in your neck of the woods in 1969 I watched Apollo 11 lift off. Michael

:D Molasses those wires are mighty fine. .002 that is finer than most human hair!..... Now there's a thought what about rigging something with human hair. it has probably been done. Michael

Elia that looks really great, I had not realized how complex the deck furniture was going to be. Michael

John those are some long mast and spars. I am going to suppose that you will have the sails furled.... but maybe not? Michael

Ok I know there was some info and posts about this on MSW 1...... fast forward to MSW 2 I am coming up to my 65th birthday and My sweet wife will pool with her family to get me the right stuff for my Bristol Pilot Cutter. Here is a picture of the sailplan What do I need? Michael

Russ that is OK My question did prompt Hexnut to suggest the PDF which worked. Your comments prompted me to look deeper into the version that I have. A win win as far as I am concerned. cheers Michael

Russ I think this link will explain some of the reasons why i cannot do some things with my version of Autocad http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoCAD#AutoCAD_LT Michael

Russ I think it has to do with the level of the Cad package There are a number of things that were not included in the Autocad Lt 2000 The other thing I cannot do it 3D. The difference in cost between the Autocad Lt and the full Autocad is considerable. The thing that I really like about Autocad v's the Corel drawing program is the way the vectored program works compared to the raster program simple things like extending a line or trimming a line those tasks are much more cumbersome in the drawing program and Ortho mode. Michael

Hi Russ Upload the JPEG to which program? If I scan a drawing for instance I save it as a JPEG then upload it to Corel Draw II Then I scale the image to whatever scale I am working with. So now instead of doing the tracing in Corel I will save the Corel file as a PDF then load it into the Autocad Light. Once the file is in Autocad Lt 2000 It is put on layer 0 and the layer is locked not frozen, That way the trace goes well as in the case of the example that I started the post with. Now in order for me to post a picture that I have generated in Autocad Lt 2000 I have to save it as a DXF open the DXF in Corel and then save it as a JPEG PNG or PDF to post it here. This is the Autocad file that I traced from the PDF this morning. It is a PDF file test trace of corel Cockwells.pdf This is a PNG this is a JPEG The PDF was the easiest on my computer system resources, and the line weights in the JPEG and PNG are very hard to see in the exported images. In each case the same file in Corel was saved. The JPEG and PNG both had to be reduced from 8,000 pixels to 800 pixels to post. I used Ifanview to do the reductions , it is a free and very easy program to use. This has been a bit of a ramble but I really prefer to draft in Autocad and not draw in Corel. So I am happy that I have begun to use the spline function and it will make drafting so much easier for me. Michael

Dee Dee Just checking in, I like what you have done so far. Michael

Russ, I have tried every format other than the PDF that I tried this morning none of them work in Autocad Lt. Not my version anyway the PDF did work so now All I have to do is use PDF,s because the normal raster images just come up as a small box with the name of the file. Michael

Nice little project Russ A full size one of these would be good on the lake. the model finished up really well. Michael

I must add my own congratulations Garward. michael

Hexnut I am sorry I confused the issue in the first post I meant to say that from Corel via DXF to Autocad which is when it freezes . I do set the line width in Corel 11 .001" because if I set it to 0" then I see nothing. I just did the PDF into Autocad LT Well thanks for that tidbit of Information , learned another great tip today Thanks. Oh this is such a great site !!! Michael

I have been using Corel draw 11 for quite some time to draw the lines and framing of my models, I like the way the program works in some ways and not in others. The ability for me to trace over a scanned image and the editing of curves and fills. It is slow though and a memory hog. I have also been using Autocad Lt 2000 for 13 years and I am reasonable competent (still learn new stuff every time I use it) however I always seemed to have trouble with tracing because it does not allow it. For straight drafting I use the Autocad If I am not drawing with a pencil. I have been working on getting better with the spline curves because I will be able to get better definition eventually with the Autocad. so here is my first attempt at the lines of a test hull with Autocad. My question is: that if I export a Corel file via DXF to Corel 11 then go to do any work on the file it freezes the Autocad and I have to reboot the Autocad program, does anybody know of a fix for this problem. Going from Autocad to Corel is not a problem and works fine. And if I want to publish an image from Autocad Lt 2000 I have to save it as a DXF then I open it in Corel then Export it as a JPEG or PNG file, which is a rather long winded way of doing things. Michael

Sven, you are definitely pushing the bar up there, what a fantastic job on the masts and rigging. "steady hands,careful you must be" Michael

The oars look good, I did notice however that the tenth one from the left side......... is a bit fatter than the rest. Great stuff sir. michael

Looks like you have done a good job of rebuilding Rusty. The model looks great. Michael

Very nice work Michiel. Michael