Corel Help

[Mike Moffitt]

I need help designing a cribbage board...I'm using X3 and wanting to use the outline of a guitar, then have the holes of the cribbage board follow the shape. I was looking for something similar to the "fit text to path" option so I don't have to manually align some 60 holes....Any ideas?

Mike

[Gary Hair]

Mike,
See my post on EE

Gary

[Lee DeRaud]

The attached file may help...or not. But for the general case, if there is such a tool/macro/algorithm, I'd love to hear about it.

I did a spiral board (you can see it on my website), and it was a real joy setting the hole locations even though I could mathematically describe the path. I ended up using an Excel spreadsheet to compute the coordinates, but I still had to enter them into the drawing manually.
132193

[Lee DeRaud]

See my post on EENo offense, but that really doesn't help the rest of us a whole lot.

[Mike Moffitt]

Lee,
For some reason your file won't open for me...I'm using X3 but get an error about it not being in a recognizable format...not sure what's going on...Thanks for trying though!

[Lee DeRaud]

D'oh! Sorry, it's X4...try this one:
132197

[Gary Hair]

No offense, but that really doesn't help the rest of us a whole lot.

sorry.

There's no way that I know if in Corel. I used Vectric's VcarvePro.

Gary

[Carl Sewell]

Use the Artistic Media tool, sprayer.

First create your 'holes'. Then select the Artistic Media tool, Sprayer.

Select "New Spray List" from the property bar.

Then select your holes and Add to spray list (on the property bar).

Select your object.

Then select your holes from the spray list drop down.

Modify the spacing and change the rotation to PATH BASED, both on the property bar.

[Lee DeRaud]

Use the Artistic Media tool, sprayer.Got it working 'freehand' (sort of*) but how do you apply the "spray" to an existing path?

The only thing I know that can do that is text. Maybe the answer is to generate a special font with a pair of holes and maybe a couple of different width spaces as its only characters...anybody know how to do that?

(*I say 'sort of' because there are some hole spacing issues with this method that can't be fixed globally: there will still be a bunch of tweaking required.)

[Carl Sewell]

how do you apply the "spray" to an existing path?

Maybe my instructions weren't clear? Select the path (curve), go to the artist media tool, and click on your new spray item in the spray list.

Would you like a video?

[Steven Resnick]

Mike,
I maybe able to help you out.
I have a rhinestone pattern software that will put all the hole where you need them.
If you would like to send me a file that has the lines where you need the hole I can layout the hole for you.
just let me know what size the holes need to be and what should be the spacing between the holes.

Steven

[Lee DeRaud]

Maybe my instructions weren't clear? Select the path (curve), go to the artist media tool, and click on your new spray item in the spray list.Ah, got it...was doing things in the wrong order.

As I said, there are spacing issues. If, for example, you place hole-pairs around an ellipse, the ones on the inside will be too close together by varying amounts, depending on the curvature, since the spacing gets set along the path. You can correct for this with the offset, by placing the 'inside' holes directly on the path. But for a more complex curve, like an "S", with alternating concave/convex portions, there is no simple way to get consistent spacing: what is needed is some option that constrains minimum spacing regardless of curvature direction.

Most board layouts also add additional space every fifth hole to make it easier to count.

[Carl Sewell]

the ones on the inside will be too close together by varying amounts

You could use inside and outside as separate spray lists to minimize these effects. Depending on the curve, you may be able to tweak individual hole pairs where the specific curve causes distortions in the spacing, which may be less time consuming than manual creating all the hole pairs.



Most board layouts also add additional space every fifth hole to make it easier to count.

You could use 5 sets of holes as your spray to achieve the same effect.

[Mike Moffitt]

I think I worked it out pretty well. Not perfect, but it worked for me. I posted pics of the finished product in another thread. But what I ended up doing was finding a font with an "o" that was pretty much a perfect circle. Then put 60 of those together, changed it to 6 font, then changed the kerning to about 800%, then "fit text to path". I then repeated the above except I had to change the kerning percent since the second set of holes was along a smaller path. Took a little bit of work and probably wouldn't work for every shape, but it got my project done!

Thanks for all the suggestions and checkout the other thread called Cribbage Board Project (I think) for pictures.

Mike

[Lee DeRaud]

You could use 5 sets of holes as your spray to achieve the same effect.Tried that: it doesn't wrap the group of five around the curve, so it's like setting dominos in a circle.

[Richard Rumancik]

I'm not a CorelDraw expert, but I am wondering if the Interactive Blend tool is not a better tool to use for this job.

I think a lot of people don't use the blend tool because they assume it doesn't apply to what they are doing, but it can be used to create "arrays" and patterns when you really aren't actually blending the objects.

The blend tool will allow you to morph a circle into a square, for example, using a specified number of intermediate steps. In the interactive mode you can select the first object and drag to the last and it will "fill in" the objects between. They call it "steps" but that is a bit of a confusing term to me - it is really more like the number of objects inserted between the first and last.

But if the first and last object are both the same, then it will create a linear array of objects.

How do you use this for a curve? Good question. Seems like you have to create the blend pattern in a straight line, then you can tell it to move the "blend" to a new path. THEN you have the option to select the distance between the objects, instead of the number of steps between first and last.

Here is a link that might explain it better than I can here . . .

http://www.nbm.com/library/ae/graphicdesign/CorelDrawAppliedBlending.php

In this link the author created a blend of stars from large to small. (Imagine that the first and last were the same size.) Then the blend was moved to a "new path" along half an ellipse. At that point, you can change the parameter to "fixed spacing" instead of number of steps.

Just an idea . . . I played with it a bit and it looks promising but can't say for certain if it would work for Mike or not.

[Guy Mathews]

Tried that: it doesn't wrap the group of five around the curve, so it's like setting dominos in a circle.

Let's look at this from a NASCAR point of view. At Daytona because they love to run 4 wide you have a car on the inside, a car on the outside and 2 in the center. Now place 4 more groups of cars behind the first group. If they all travel the track at the exact same speed and stay on the same curve, the inside row will finish first followed respectively by rows 2, 3 and 4. This occurs because the further out from a center point that you travel the greater the distance around the center point. To finish at the same time, the rows furthest from the inside have to increase their speed to close the distance. For the example that I am showing in the photo I used 3 holes arrayed along a center curve.

The fastest way I have found to do this is in in CAD software. I have Corel 12, but Rhino was faster. I used the outline of a Fender Guitar and offset the line in-wards to make a pattern for the holes to follow. It is not to scale and it is not a cribbage board but it does demonstrate what happens when you are traveling to the inside or the outside of any closed loop.

In Rhino, you simply select your object, then, from the drop down menu under Transform select Array along a Curve and select the number or the spacing. In this case I used 50 as the number. It is the domino effect that Lee has described.

I can not find anything set in stone that states a cribbage board has to be perfect, so I would think that any design that you come up with that has the correct amount of holes, is pleasing to the eye and functional would be a winner.

BTW Mike. Your cribbage board looks great and I am sure it will be well received.

Guy

[Lee DeRaud]

I can not find anything set in stone that states a cribbage board has to be perfect, so I would think that any design that you come up with that has the correct amount of holes, is pleasing to the eye and functional would be a winner.You just put your finger on the reason why I'm so fussy about the hole spacing on my boards:
the Mark I Mod 0 human eyeball is extremely sensitive to minute variations in a periodic pattern.

[Dan Hintz]

the Mark I Mod 0 human eyeball is extremely sensitive to minute variations in a periodic pattern.
All I know is mine is extremely sensitive to sticking my finger in it... I try not to do that often, but it happens.

[Lee DeRaud]

All I know is mine is extremely sensitive to sticking my finger in it... I try not to do that often, but it happens."...and the most important safety rule is to wear these: safety glasses." - Norm Abram :D

[Guy Mathews]

"...and the most important safety rule is to wear these: safety glasses." - Norm Abram :D


And "...no glue here, just a few pin nails to hold it in place." Also Norm!

[AL Ursich]

I looked at the picture first then saw it was Guy posting and Laughed... Nice work !!!!

Working outside the box....:D

AL