Help with Corel.

[Mitchell Tutty]

I've got a client who wanted a dragonfly out of 8mm ply. I've got cut files scaled in 3mm and 6mm. I scaled it up such that the slots worked out at 8mm and told the client the dragonfly would have a wingspan of about 1500mm, but they wanted it to be about 900mm but still want it out of 8mm ply. So I now have the dilemma of altering every slot so that they work for 8mm material. Simply, what is the easiest way to do this? I'm using Corel X3 and also have access to CASmate, I have an idea on how to do it in both programs but it would be a very lengthy process. How would you all attack this? All help is greatly appreciated!

[matthew knott]

How many slots are we talking about? Post the file here and I'm sure someone will sort it out or tell you how , without seeing the file it's hard to give advise

[Mitchell Tutty]

279722

It's quite a lot yes.

[matthew knott]

OK, well i haven't got a clue as to how to do this easily, to redraw it is going to be a load of work and take ages, I guessing as no one else has chipped in then its not going to be easy, I will try autocad and see if there are any tools that will do this but dont hold your breath!

[Mark E Wilson]

I think you will have to redraw. Scale the size and then adjust all those slots the wood thickness. I learned a real hard lesson last year getting ready for our Christmas show. Had about 30 models go in the trash because the wood thickness was about .01 different. I found an awesome tool that helps us combat this. In addition to an inexpensive Harbor Freight digital caliper some software from makecnc. http://www.makecnc.com/3d-scale-calculator.php That will make your jump from one thickness of wood to another, but not the overall scale using the same thickness of wood.

[Kev Williams]

Here you go, link below! I hope you wanted 8mm wide slots! -NOTE that the slots are longer by half the same offset as the width, but I'm thinking that shouldn't be a big deal. Only the slots are wider, otherwise the patterns are identical.

279903

Here's a before/after screenshot: (another reason why I'll NEVER stop using Casmate!)
279904279906

[Bert Kemp]

I think you will have to redraw. Scale the size and then adjust all those slots the wood thickness. I learned a real hard lesson last year getting ready for our Christmas show. Had about 30 models go in the trash because the wood thickness was about .01 different. I found an awesome tool that helps us combat this. In addition to an inexpensive Harbor Freight digital caliper some software from makecnc. http://www.makecnc.com/3d-scale-calculator.php That will make your jump from one thickness of wood to another, but not the overall scale using the same thickness of wood.How does this work with corelx5 I see noway to rescale design?

[Mark E Wilson]

You measure the wood (we use 1/8" Baltic Birch that comes in 60"x60" sheets and cut it down to 15"x30" sheets and it normally has about .115" in thickness). So we design everything planning on a .115" thickness and adjust from there with the program. Enter .115 in the "Original" spot, the thickness you measure in the "New" spot. The second line of blue text tells you what to enter in the scale Then in Corel just scale to the level it says. Just make sure you have the ratio locked so it changes Vetical and Horizontal scales the same.

279915

[Mitchell Tutty]

Here you go, link below! I hope you wanted 8mm wide slots! -NOTE that the slots are longer by half the same offset as the width, but I'm thinking that shouldn't be a big deal. Only the slots are wider, otherwise the patterns are identical.

279903

Here's a before/after screenshot: (another reason why I'll NEVER stop using Casmate!)
279904279906

You legend! that's exactly what I wanted. You've made me and a customer very happy.
You're a legend!

[Bert Kemp]

So if i have a tabbed box say 8x8" drawn in 1/4 BB and want to use 1/8" BB I just put in 50% it will change the tab size for 1/8 or will it scale the whole thing down by 50%. . I want to leave the size of box the same just change the tab size. I bought the scale.

[Chris J Anderson]

Hi Mark,
I was going to post an answer like yours as well, but I think the problem is he wants to keep the slot sizes the same width (8mm), while changing the outside dimensions of each part.

Just scaling it up or down would also change the slot width, which his client wants to keep at 8mm.

Cheers,
Chris

[Kev Williams]

In case anyone cares how I did that-

I manually cut each slot at the piece edges;
moved each cut slot exactly 40" up (the layout was over 30" tall);
welded all the cut pieces shut;
verified that all the pieces were closed and clockwise;
welded all the cut slots shut (which made them closed rectangles);
outlined all the slots to change the slot width to 8mm;
made sure all the new slots were counter-clockwise;
moved the new slots back down 40";
grouped the whole layout and did a "cut-and-weld minus holes"....

took less than 20 minutes with my 22 year old DOS version of Casmate...

[Mark E Wilson]

Not sure if 50% is right or not. The scale tool will tell you what to use. But your 8"x8" will no longer be that size. It will scale everything.