-----PATTERNS & PATTERN-MAKING-----

[leinir]

As mentioned before, [xlink=6748]InkScape[/xlink] is free (in this case both free as in free speech and as in free beer). It is a very capable program, and currently weighs in at around 11 megabytes in download for Windows, and around 3.5 megabytes for Linux. I have just found out that there is in fact a MacOS X port in DarwinPorts of InkScape (DarwinPorts portfile for Inkscape). If you wish, I will find direct download links for InkScape

I would say that because SVG is a free format (in every way possibly), it would be very good for distributing patterns in, as everybody would be able to make them as well as redistribute them for free, because the programs are free. It is also a selling point that since it's a vector format, it scales very well, and is always very high quality, wether you render it on screen at 72 DPI, or print it out on your proffesional laser printer at 2000 DPI.

I am attaching a screenshot of what the site I mentioned I'm working on currently looks like (Wired, can I use the picture? ).

[Wired]

Hi Leinir,

Yes,no problem use the pics and whatever,its a great idea!
I'll d/load Inkscape and check it out.Top marks!

Regards,

Wired.

[leinir]

Thanks Wired That means that you can now check out a working copy of the website here: http://www.leinir.dk/rubberist/

Good luck with InkScape. It might seem a bit odd to those not familiar with vector graphics. I strongly encourage checking out the tutorials found in InkScape's Help->Tutorials menu and going through them. Especially the two first ones (Basics and Advanced), as they teach you first the basics, then stuff like path editing (which is crucial for our purpose here).

A trick: What I did was to import the picture you posted and resize it to fit the size of the page (holding ctrl when dragging constrains the proportions of the item being resized), and then drawing on top of that. What I did to get the shapes was to draw a path with the Bezier curve tool, and then after closing the path giving it a vaguely transparent fill and no border.

Again, good luck, and I hope to see much activity with this I will endeavour to make an SVG version of the IAR shield, keeping as close to the original as possible (while you can import images into SVG files, the SVG file itself contains only the path to the file, and not the actual image data, making it not very practical to work with in this sense). I will post it here once it is done

EDIT: Right, I went and did it Tell me what you think, is it close enough to the original to be Good(TM)?

[leinir]

Right, here goes the official launch of the website hereforth known as The Database of Rubberist Patterns. At the moment it is a bit empty (it only contains one pattern (in Masks), and no actual instructions), but I hope that people will help me make it grow quickly.

Thanks for the inspiration to start this, and to Wired for letting me use his picture in the design

To Ataraxia: It is currently hosted on my personal web-space, and as such can be difficult to remember for people who don't already know me (from experience I know people sometimes have problems spelling my name). And therefore I ask wether it would be possible to have a rubberist.net forwarder set up, for example patterns.rubberist.net so people can actually remember the URL

[sh11ny]

Excellent idea! One comment. Would it be better to make your site a wiki so that people can add to/ammend the patterns if they come up with improvements. I'm thinking mainly for the instructions. Or is this possible already?


sh11ny

[leinir]

Hmm... I like wikis (I am an active member on two, and even wrote a wiki-like cms called Uberghey CMS), but for this particular purpose, I think I'll keep it the way it is, but you have made me think about adding a commenting function... I shall get back to you about that. Thanks

[warwick]

Hi folks.

I'm the author of [xlink=6718]www.stretchy.org[/xlink]. (For what it's worth, I spotted the links from here in my referrer logs, and my curiosity was sufficiently piqued that I've ordered some .33mm supatex from 4D. Updates when I've messed around with it and recovered from the adhesive fumes.)

There were a few reasons I didn't post pattern graphics; the main one was that I only had my own measurements to work from, and people come in all sizes. The others were the quality of my drafting software (xfig) and the feeling that sticking a few dozen sheets of A4 together and then copying on to tissue paper would be a royal faff. (I appreciate the tissue paper isn't necessary for rubber.)

It occurs to me that it should be possible to overcome the first and second issues by writing something (in javascript - CGI/PHP costs me extra :) to convert the measurements into an SVG pattern, which only leaves the third issue.

Since you're all here, I have a sensible audience to ask: Is the method I describe on my site - plotting perpendiculars from a centre line - easier or harder than messing about with bits of paper? (Or is it, as with most things, just a matter of choice?)

Cheers,

Tim

[Ataraxia]

Good luck with [xlink=6748]InkScape[/xlink]. It might seem a bit odd to those not familiar with vector graphics. I strongly encourage checking out the tutorials found in InkScape's Help->Tutorials menu and going through them. Especially the two first ones (Basics and Advanced), as they teach you first the basics, then stuff like path editing (which is crucial for our purpose here).

I had a peek at the windows version of [xlink=6748]InkScape[/xlink]. Wow!

I don't pretend to know much about graphics programs and even less about pattern making, but it seems that this very impressive (and free!) drawing program might be well worth looking into for creating patterns that can be shared.

What is your opinion??

[Wired]

Hi all,

Warwick - I started off making patterns using the methods you describe

plotting perpendiculars from a centre line

then after that moved on to creating patterns using 'vanilla' clothing like t shirts and jeans to get the essential shapes (crotch - armpit etc) then modified a few dancewear patterns for use with latex rather than lycra.
I would offer this advice if using patterns designed for use with lycra, IMHO lycra has much more stretch than latex, so the pattern for latex will be much larger overall than its lycra counterpart. This will take into account the lack of stretch of latex vs lycra.
I notice the pattern you refer to on your site come from a US supplier, check the link below for a UK supplier of dancewear patterns,
www.nevtex.co.uk

Ataraxia - I'm not sure how good a format .svg is for patterns. it still doesent get us round the problem of being able to provide an actual size pattern that's easy to print out. I'd certainly welcome any ideas from any resident gfx experts.

Regards,
Wired.

[Ataraxia]

Let me see if I understand this....

You need these capabilities:

1. The ability to either create new patterns to scale or to "move the lines" in an existing one to accomodate changes in measurements.
2. The ability to use an "average" printer that most people might have (as opposed to an expensive plotter printer) to print out large drawings on multiple sheets of standard-size paper and include registration marks and indexes so they can be glued or taped together to form full-sized patterns to scale with reasonable accuracy.

Perhaps we should be looking at two, completely separate programs to perform these activities?

There seems to be a wide range of very capable drafting programs ranging from the (free) InkScape and QCAD to (very expensive) AutoCAD. One or more of these may be suitable for item #1. (I'll let the "experts" make their recommendations on which are most suitable.)

Perhaps what we should be looking for is some sort of second, "dedicated" print program that can perform the Item #2 activity and do it partcularly well? We might even be able to find one that is free and will accept multiple formats.

Am I on the right track? Ideas, anyone?