|
|
|
|
||||
© 2000 by Ron McIntyre. All Rights Reserved.
|
|
In this article I am going to show you how to produce a pattern that you can make from almost anything. All the clipart images can also be used to produce similar patterns. This article users CorelDRAW 9 and the full size pattern is printed from a 8 1/2 inch printer.
I took this digital picture of the original waterboy as a lady friend needed a new pattern produced. She had lost the one she drew years ago and wondered if I could make her a new one. I said yes. The following will show you how I did this.
STEP 1: I opened Corel PHOTO-PAINT 9 and used the Mask Brush tool to mask the little water boy. He was then converted to an object and saved. The resulting file was then imported into CorelDRAW. Since my camera only produced a resolution of 120 dpi I resampled the image to 300 dpi to give me less jaggies before I made a vector drawing.
Editor's Note: The resolution assigned by digital cameras is purely an arbitrary number. In effect it is completely meaningless. More important is the number of pixels in the image. While you can upsample an image in Corel PHOTO-PAINT (or Photoshop) to create more pixels, it is better to do this with a special plug-in like Altamira's Genuine Fractals.
I chose to make a vector drawing of the water boy so I could produce all of the lines needed to make a transfer to 1/2 inch plywood. All of the lines would be used for the finished painting to the plywood. Since the photo will maintain the aspect ratio, I measured the original water boy. It measured 31 inches tall by 15 1/2 inches wide.
After importing the image at right into CorelDRAW, you will have a small visual object to start fabricating each object to produce the final drawing. In the illustration below are all the parts used to construct the final assembled group of objects. With this group of objects as a visual reference, you should be able to produce this very same finished pattern.
At left are all the parts needed to produce the full size pattern. The hose, hardware, and wooden blocks are not needed and will be added on after completion of finished product.
At the end of the article I will list the size of the blocks and hardware needed.
Step 3: After drawing all of your objects and assembling them as shown at right, you are now ready to produce the full size pattern.
Open up a new Corel drawing with a page size of 20 inches wide by 36 inches tall. Import the vector version of the water boy into your new drawing.
Step 4: After you have opened your new drawing of 20 x 36 inches, you can now increase the size of the image to 31 inches. Make sure all of you objects are grouped and make sure to maintain your aspect ratio. My resized image was 31 x 15.6662 inches.
Also notice the four black circles. These represent the holes for the 1/4 inch carriage bolts to be inserted. After you have increased the image to 31 inches, you can now combine these circles to mark your locations for drilling. Do not combine them in your small drawing. If you do, the holes will be a lot larger than 1/4 inch. This is shown at left.
Step 5: In your 20 x 36 inch page you should determine how many sheets of paper you are going to use to print the water boy. This may be a bit confusing now, but will become clearer as we move along.
Draw a rectangle 17 inches wide by 32 inches tall. Place it in the center of page (just press P on your keyboard to do this). Now place the boy in center of the rectangle (again, press P). Select the boy and click on NO FILL to get the image shown at left.
Since we are going to use a PowerClip in the next step, the boy must have no fill. If he is in a container you will not be able unfill your objects.
Step 6: As we now have the boy centered in the rectangle we can use PowerClip. Select the boy and go to Effects, Power Clip and Place Inside Container. When the arrow appears select the 17 x 32 inch rectangle. Next click on NO OUTLINE as shown at right. The reason we have no outline is that we are going to place our Graph Paper at this location.
Step 7: Go to your Graph Paper Tool and either select 3 rows and 4 columns or 2 rows and 5 columns. Since most of us have Letter size paper on hand and not legal paper, I am going to use Letter size, even though it uses two pages more. An example of Letter size paper is shown at left with Legal shown at right.
Draw your Graph Paper of 3 rows and 4 columns and size it to 17 inches by 32 inches. Place the Graph Paper over the top of your boy, as shown at left. Select both the boy and paper and Align center to center (press C and E on your keyboard). The Graph Paper is now centered over the same location as your container.
Select your Graph Paper and go to Arrange, and Ungroup All, or click Ungroup All on your Property Bar. You now have 12 individual parts that you can use to intersect your boy with as shown at right.
Note: You may have to use your Tab key to select individual parts, or marquee select the part you need for intersection as you do not want to move your selected object.
Step 8: We are now ready to intersect each individual part of the boy. Find your docker as shown at right. Leave both source and target checked.
You can however uncheck source and it will remove each part as you intersect it. I chose to leave both checked.
Select your left top object first and click on intersect as shown at right. After it has been intersected move it out of your drawing page. Also notice when you move the intersected object that it does not have an outline. Right click on your color palette whichever color you want the outline to be.
After you have intersected all of the objects you should have 12 individual parts or objects as seen at right. You are now ready to assemble the objects to another drawing for printing.
Step 9: Open a new drawing of Letter size and draw two rectangles. The first will be the same size as one of your Intersected Objects, 8 inches tall by 5.667 inches wide. Align this object to center of page (press P). Then, draw a second rectangle 1/2 inch larger than the first. 8.5 inch tall by 6.167 inches wide. Align this object to center of page also. The result is shown below.
Next, select the first rectangle (8 x 5.667 inches). Select Window | Docker | Transformation | Position and read the H & V positions. Notice that Relative Position is not checked and your top left object handle is checked. The H position should read 1.4165 the V position should read 9.5 as shown at right. Write these positions down as you are now going to move the larger rectangle to these coordinates. The reason we are doing this is that we want to transfer our intersected objects from our full size drawing to our printing page at the exact same position with a 1/2 inch border on the printed page. This will be shown next.
Select your larger rectangle (8.5 x 6.167 inches) and enter the same H & V positions as the smaller rectangle. Click Apply. You now have moved the larger to the exact locations of the smaller rectangle. Select the smaller rectangle (8 x 5.667) and delete this object. You now have one single object left, double check your object position. It should be H (1.4165) V (9.5) If not, move it there. If it is then go to Arrange and click on Lock Object. These steps are shown in the two figures below.
Now that you have one Locked Rectangle object in your Letter size drawing, create 11 more pages with this same locked object in every page. Note you will have to unlock your object before you can duplicate it. Once you duplicate it and cut the duplicate to the clipboard, relock your object. You can now go to Layout and insert a new page and paste the duplicate to every page. Lock each pasted object.
Editor's Note: You may be able to accomplish much of the same effect by using the Tiling function in the Print dialog box. It just won't have the same level of accuracy in placement.
Step 10: Since we have everything set up to transfer each intersected object it will now go a lot faster. In your full size drawing select your first intersected object, A. Go to Arrange, Align and Distribute, Check Center of Page, Click OK. Your selected object moves to center of page, B. Or just press P on your keyboard.
Go to your Standard Tool Bar and click on Cut or press Ctrl-X.
Go to your Letter size drawing, Standard Tool Bar and click on Paste (or press Ctrl-V), your selected object will arrive as shown in C.
Repeat this process for all the other 11 pages.
Print all 12 sheets, cut out each printed object by either scissors, or a precision paper cutter as I did, and assemble all 12 sheets to you full size pattern of 31 inches by 15.667 inches.
Once you print the object, your outline size can not be changed. It must be changed before you intersect your large object.
Do not use water base glue to assemble your printed objects.
Avery Permanent Glue Stick #00166 Photo Safe, works very well as you have time to move and align the sheets. Plus it will wash out of clothes. It also drys invisible.
Assemble your sheets as Sets (1,2,3), (4,5,6), (7,8,9), (10,11,12). Then assemble the sets together.
To transfer your pattern to plywood you will need Graphite Transfer Paper shown at left. Use a hard pencil, as it will produce a finer line while drawing freehand.
4 #10 screw hooks
2 wooden blocks each 5 inches by 1 1/2 by 3/4 Thick
1 Garden hose 22 inches long with Female connection on one end.
1 3/4 conduit clamp.
4 carriage bolts 1/4 inch by 1 inch long.
2 angle iron each 16 inches long by 1/16 or 1/8 inches thick.
With the method I have given to produce a full size pattern you can apply this to about anything you want. Even canvas and other material. You can take any symbol, clipart image, photo and produce something you can say you did it yourself. Even if you have a larger printer 17 x 22 you would still have to put the parts together. An 8 1/2 printer will just take a few more pages. HAVE FUN!
CD-ROM Labels: Design, Cut, & Install From Glossy Photo Paper · Postcards, QSL Cards, Books and the Duplexing Wizard · Use CorelDRAW to Produce Scrolling Text or Graphics From Screen Recording Software · Creating a Cross Stitch Pattern from an Original Scan · Making Those Fancy License Plates · Creating Stencils To Paint On T-Shirts · Constructing Isometric Grid Paper, A Computer Aid · Making a Full Sized Pattern From a Digital Photo · Fabricate Your Own Copper Arrows, Part I · Fabricate Your Own Copper Arrows, Part II
Copyright © 1995–2013 Unleashed Productions, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
