The Framers Forum

...... is a feature I'd like in FMD

Did some washlines today and as I was plotting the corner dots on my hand made gauge I thought - wouldn't it be nice if I could do this on the CMC.

It's not really a slow process to plot manually, but there is plenty of room for human error - and before anyone suggests that gauge that uses pins - which really is fast - forget it! If and when the pins go through the surface paper the ink/paint can and does (especially on some boards) seep under them and make a great big blob.

To make a row of 45 degree dots in FMD that you could copy, paste and rotate for each corner, would be a bit of a nightmare - far faster by hand, but if it was a feature in the FMD toolbox it would be far faster and deadly accurate.

This is how it would/could work .....

Enter outer X and Y

Select shapes (rectangle/square ...... possibly oval/whatever)?

Enter aperture X and Y

Enter concentric shapes - say six

(Somewhere along the line go to the toolbox as you may for arrays and select 'corner marking gauge')

Press 'OK

Inner aperture stays; concentric shapes disappear but dots are left at the corners

Inner aperture has blade selected, dots have embossing head selected - or possibly stylus head with a pencil.

Warraya reckon?

Nice idea but not sure it would work too well.

Plus time consuming. You would have to change from the cutting head to the embossing head then back again.

why not just use this with a pencil

http://www.lionpic.co.uk/product/LONGRI ... ,7822.aspx

Very quick and accurate.

Well that device is fine and as I said - so's my home made one - both have drawbacks though - like having to turn the board per corner and like it being possible, with either, to get some muck stuck under it.

Just a thought anyway - strange things go through my mind when I'm concentrating!

I've sorted this.

Instead of worrying about marking corner dots, I just emboss, (or deboss if you prefer) all the lines around the aperture. But I set the depth of the embossing head to 2 instead of 6 - you can hardly see the embossed lines and once they are filled with paint, you can't at all.

You still have the option of marking the corners lightly with a pencil and also of pencilling the border lines of a wash panel, but it's much more impressive if you don't.

Just been watching a video by Ursula Hobson - The Fine Art of French Matting - where she uses a joiners measuring gauge to form the lines, removing the metal pin and replacing it with a pencil lead. Haven't tried it but she makes it look like a doddle.