Knife design ipad

[Mr.x]

Hi guys hopefully I have this in the correct place, is there such a thing I can use for designing and knife and also say take a picture of a knife I like and modify it to suit me and save the new pic and print it out for a template ? So say I like a knife I have found on the internet but the handle is too long I would like to save that pic and modify it on my iPad (or computer at worse) then shorten the handle up by say a half a inch then print it out to scale ? Sorry if this is a silly question I am new to knife making and loving every Minuit of it ! Please be nice to the new guy lol.

Cheers

 

[Sean Jones]

A lot of people on here use Fusion 360. Which is free for personal use. I've never used it myself. But most likely what I will be going to soon. I believe it will do what you want. Photoshop or GIMP will do the same. I believe the learning curve for 360 is less than GIMP or Photoshop. Plus it's really a different animal. Other's with 360 experience should chime in.

Right now I'm using Inkscape. A good program. But it has some limitations over Fusion 360.

 

[Absinthe]

Inkscape is awesome for drawing stuff. You can trace things really well also. It takes a little practice, but given a nice straight on view I can outline a knife in less than 10 minutes. There is also a "trace bitmap" feature but it doesn't exactly work the way you think. I have used it, but most times I find it easier to pull in an image, reduce its opacity, lock it from changes, then using the bezier/line tool to trace it super rough, then use the node editor to pretty it up. For example here is my version of Tony Bose's Lanny's Clip, traced from the scanned hand traced pattern he shared with someone that Chris Crawford has on his patterns list. This took me a good half of an hour, but if I were to do it again, it would only be about 10 minutes. I have also moved a lot of these things into FreeCAD. But I am not recommending that for a beginner. Graphics packages, in general, are a strange breed of cat. They tend not to work like other software you may be used to, so they do take a little getting acquainted with. But if you put in the work, they are a huge time saver.


Here is a link to the scanned image at Chris' site for comparison.

 

[Absinthe]

And just for fun, here is what I came up for the Case Toothpick based on online images from several sales, and ebay pictures in different orientations. Not quite as easy because I wanted to do the internals as well, but had to just "figure them out" once pas the kick/ricasso.



Here is an Amazon image for comparison:

 

[Absinthe]

So both of those are committed to SVG image. That is vector based, rather than raster. What means is that I can scale them up or down with zero loss. I could make an image the size of a postage stamp, or as large as a bill board without any pixelation. Inkscape is free, and that is complete. Free both as in speech as well as beer. It costs nothing, and you pay nothing to use it. The source code is available for the program and so on. Like I said, it takes a little getting used to. But once you do, there will be no stopping you

 

[fitzo]

The two fancy drawing programs for iPad are ProCreate and Affinity Designer.

 

[Bühlmann]

I just sketch my plans on 1/4" graph paper. This way I'm not directly copying, but rather can be inspired by another's design(s). Sketching by hand makes it personal, and it's probably the most relaxing part of the entire process for me.

It may be that I just find graphics software beyond frustrating, and since this is a hobby to me I like to do what soothes instead of irritates. YMMV.

 

[Absinthe]

The two fancy drawing programs for iPad are ProCreate and Affinity Designer.

Not being a Mac person (other than at work) I wouldn't know the titles. But as far as I am aware Inkscape is available for the Mac. I am a big proponent of FOSS.

 

[Absinthe]

No

I just sketch my plans on 1/4" graph paper. This way I'm not directly copying, but rather can be inspired by another's design(s). Sketching by hand makes it personal, and it's probably the most relaxing part of the entire process for me.

It may be that I just find graphics software beyond frustrating, and since this is a hobby to me I like to do what soothes instead of irritates. YMMV.

Nothing wrong with that. I can do it but no longer find it relaxing. I like the precision I can get with CAD or sketching software. No judgement, just a different technique with a different tool.

 

[fitzo]

Not being a Mac person (other than at work) I wouldn't know the titles. But as far as I am aware Inkscape is available for the Mac. I am a big proponent of FOSS.

My response was in regards to the OP's question about iPad apps. Since MacOS and iOS are different operating systems, apps don't cross over between versions. I happen to have Affinity on both my iPad and MacBook but they are separate programs and purchases. I'll look at Inkscape just for grins if there's a freebie to test drive. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Absinthe]

My response was in regards to the OP's question about iPad apps. Since MacOS and iOS are different operating systems, apps don't cross over between versions. I happen to have Affinity on both my iPad and MacBook but they are separate programs and purchases. I'll look at Inkscape just for grins if there's a freebie to test drive. Thanks for the heads up.

Inkscape 1.2 - macOS | Inkscape

Inkscape 1.2 is the latest major Inkscape release that brings you many fresh new features and new functionality. - Apple's macOS Desktop

inkscape.org

That's the Mac version, I don't know if there is an IOS one.

 

[fitzo]

Inkscape 1.2 - macOS | Inkscape

Inkscape 1.2 is the latest major Inkscape release that brings you many fresh new features and new functionality. - Apple's macOS Desktop

inkscape.org

That's the Mac version, I don't know if there is an IOS one.

Thanks, Bradley. I had already downloaded and installed. Nice GUI, I look forward to poking around in it. I've been thinking lately about buying a PC again so I can subscribe to Corel Draw. I used to use the heck out of that prog to design engraving layouts years ago, but switched to Mac for supposedly superior music processing. That's questionable, and it's become pretty apparent that Apple's interest is all about current youth trends with social media, posting videos, and Instagram.

 

[Absinthe]

Thanks, Bradley. I had already downloaded and installed. Nice GUI, I look forward to poking around in it. I've been thinking lately about buying a PC again so I can subscribe to Corel Draw. I used to use the heck out of that prog to design engraving layouts years ago, but switched to Mac for supposedly superior music processing. That's questionable, and it's become pretty apparent that Apple's interest is all about current youth trends with social media, posting videos, and Instagram.

It is a great program. I don't really do.anybgraphics at work so I don't have it on my Mac. But it is on every Linux box I own. And because it can save in reasonable formats, you can pull it into CAD programs or other stuff. You can even use it to modify simple PDFs.