Computer software options for knife design

I have DraftSight, LibreCAD, Sketchup (for larger projects, benches, sheds, piles and pillars for the house etc.) a Lieca program, a FARO program, and recently got Fusion 360. The tutorials that are available for 360 are great, and there are a lot to chose from. A small business that makes less than 100K a year can get a free licence. You download and install the program, and then when you go to activate it you select the option for hobbyist/small business and it gives you a key that unlocks everything. A few years ago I was using OMAX software that is used for the waterjet cutters and just using the tool paths to draw out what I wanted to print...... Not exactly it's purpose, but it worked well for me and I got it for free, so I wasn't complaining. I use Draftsight over LibreCAD, but that's just because it's setup more like the program that I use at work and it feels more comfortable to me. I'm still learning 360, but can see myself starting to use it more for knives as I get more familiar with it.

Trenton
 
Jjbarney...here's a quick look at rhino for placing bit maps to create line over the sketch:

Here I scan a pencil sketch and save as a .jpeg. I use a "place bitmap" command and go pull the jpeg in. I can scale the bitmap or rotate it or move it x-y direction after I have placed it.
knife sketch for background.jpg

Then I can play with splines over the sketch. as you see here I have already decided to put a radius/choil and move forward and change angle of the ricasso area. Also made the handle a wee bit longer. Having a good pencil sketch is critical to not getting "lost" in the cad and losing you original design intent. The cad will allow to become very analytical of the lines in your sketch which is a good thing....though I do that a lot on paper before bringing it in. I don't know about everyone else but the top and bottom of the blade is what I erase and re-sketch a lot....minor changes there seem to help a blade go from looking like a beached whale to a nice clean looking blade...Lol.
knife sketch for background 2.jpg
Here you can see I removed some of the belly on the blade yet my top Line I liked and did not change. After you get a clean 2D drawing you can extrude splines to make solids/surfaces. This is not a parametric system but is still fairly quick.


knife sketch for background 3.jpg Here's the background bitmap turned off and the model rolled a bit to see 3D features.

avatar.jpgAnd the finished product...with some butchering I did...slung the blade when on the buffer and chipped the tip and tried to regrind...and shortened the blade a bit and ..well...you all probably know what a first blade looks like. Lol. I tried to tilt it so that the ugly parts were in the dark for the photo....I did a bit of tilting...:lol:
 
Fusion 360 allows you to bring in an image as well. You can also pick 2 points anywhere on the image and give it a dimension and it will scale the image to that proper size.

Also, being cloud based, it allows me to do work from any computer so I can work on designs while I'm on "break" at my day job.
 
Jjbarney...here's a quick look at rhino for placing bit maps to create line over the sketch:

Here I scan a pencil sketch and save as a .jpeg. I use a "place bitmap" command and go pull the jpeg in. I can scale the bitmap or rotate it or move it x-y direction after I have placed it.
View attachment 60127

Then I can play with splines over the sketch. as you see here I have already decided to put a radius/choil and move forward and change angle of the ricasso area. Also made the handle a wee bit longer. Having a good pencil sketch is critical to not getting "lost" in the cad and losing you original design intent. The cad will allow to become very analytical of the lines in your sketch which is a good thing....though I do that a lot on paper before bringing it in. I don't know about everyone else but the top and bottom of the blade is what I erase and re-sketch a lot....minor changes there seem to help a blade go from looking like a beached whale to a nice clean looking blade...Lol.
View attachment 60128
Here you can see I removed some of the belly on the blade yet my top Line I liked and did not change. After you get a clean 2D drawing you can extrude splines to make solids/surfaces. This is not a parametric system but is still fairly quick.


View attachment 60129 Here's the background bitmap turned off and the model rolled a bit to see 3D features.

View attachment 60130And the finished product...with some butchering I did...slung the blade when on the buffer and chipped the tip and tried to regrind...and shortened the blade a bit and ..well...you all probably know what a first blade looks like. Lol. I tried to tilt it so that the ugly parts were in the dark for the photo....I did a bit of tilting...:lol:

This is cool. Defiantly interesting gonna take a look at this software and try inout also fusion 360.

Nice knife by the way.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
You can bring in a "reference image" in Draftsight too for tracing. I do that a lot, but I have a tip for beginning knife drafters that still bites me sometimes. Mainly on folders, but pay really close attention to your dimensions right at the start. If you get all the hardware, geometry, bearings, detent, stop pin, etc drawn perfectly, but then decide you would like to scale the design, all that work will likely have to be redone. If you scale the whole drawing, you just screwed up the hardware and every hole. If you make the blade profile a "block" and re-scale, good chance bearings or washers will no longer fit within the confines the handle. So, be sure what your final blade and scale lengths are before drawing hardware. Sometimes I even draw a rectangle that is the final size and then draw the knife in that box. Or draw the metal stock first and design within it. I just tried scaling an existing design to get the blade length "legal" for a certain area, looks like it'll be a total redesign, not so simple.
 
You can bring in a "reference image" in Draftsight too for tracing. I do that a lot, but I have a tip for beginning knife drafters that still bites me sometimes. Mainly on folders, but pay really close attention to your dimensions right at the start. If you get all the hardware, geometry, bearings, detent, stop pin, etc drawn perfectly, but then decide you would like to scale the design, all that work will likely have to be redone. If you scale the whole drawing, you just screwed up the hardware and every hole. If you make the blade profile a "block" and re-scale, good chance bearings or washers will no longer fit within the confines the handle. So, be sure what your final blade and scale lengths are before drawing hardware. Sometimes I even draw a rectangle that is the final size and then draw the knife in that box. Or draw the metal stock first and design within it. I just tried scaling an existing design to get the blade length "legal" for a certain area, looks like it'll be a total redesign, not so simple.

I agree 100%. That has been my experience too and this is excellent advice.

First thing I do is create a 'reference box' for my blade. I want my blade to be 3 1/2" so I make a rectangular box that is 3 1/2". I make it a separate layer from everything else so I can make it visible or invisible at any time without affecting anything else. I then design my blade within this box and check it from time to time to make sure it's the correct length.

Once I start putting hardware in, that's when the real work begins. The hardware needs to be be accurate. And accurate to some very tight tolerances.

It seems that designing a folder is a series of hundreds or even thousands of tweeks. Every time I make one adjustment it affects three other points. This is especially true when it comes to the hardware. One tiny tweek can throw the entire works into chaos.

Scaling the entire drawing after you put in hardware might be the fastest way to disaster IMO.

I have real respect for the makers of the past and even today who are able to design and execute a folding knife without the use of CAD. That is seriously impressive.
 
Back
Top