Queipo37 Report post Posted November 29, 2022 People who make their own complex patterns, what software do you use? I know I could use AutoCAD to get it done but I don’t want to spend that kind of money. Any other software with the functionality required for making accurate patterns? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chuck123wapati Report post Posted November 29, 2022 i use a pencil, paper and some measuring tools, ruler ,compass etc. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
doubleh Report post Posted November 29, 2022 ^ This. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GatoGordo Report post Posted November 29, 2022 I use Fusion 360. While it is not designed for this purpose, there are videos on YouTube that explain how it can be used to make leather patterns. As long as you are not a professional and do this only as a hobby, Fusion 360 is free. If you are a professional, look elsewhere. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TomE Report post Posted November 29, 2022 Vector graphics programs like Adobe Illustrator ($$$) and the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program; free) are useful for line drawings, especially if you can't draw (like me). Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Doc Reaper Report post Posted November 29, 2022 Sit down, think about what you want. Square or round? Most guys think it’s easier to buy a pattern than it is to make them. Design on paper how you want it to look. Make it a simple one, keep the design simple and then add to it Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tsunkasapa Report post Posted November 29, 2022 6 hours ago, chuck123wapati said: i use a pencil, paper and some measuring tools, ruler ,compass etc. Same here. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jrdunn Report post Posted November 30, 2022 7 hours ago, chuck123wapati said: i use a pencil, paper and some measuring tools, ruler ,compass etc. I searched and couldn't find that app from my IPhone. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
caressofsteel Report post Posted December 1, 2022 Quickcad. It is free if you do not use the proprietary dll files. There is a learning curve but I used to use AutoCAD for work so I picked it up quick. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chuck123wapati Report post Posted December 1, 2022 On 11/29/2022 at 6:27 PM, jrdunn said: I searched and couldn't find that app from my IPhone. that's really to bad I don't have to update it then relearn how it works, don't have to pay for using the extra features, and the makers never make a new app and quit maintaining the old one so i don't have to re-buy, the whole set was way under 20 bucks, doesn't need a cloud to save it or a printer to go with it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
doubleh Report post Posted December 1, 2022 11 minutes ago, chuck123wapati said: that's really to bad I don't have to update it then relearn how it works, don't have to pay for using the extra features, and the makers never make a new app and quit maintaining the old one so i don't have to re-buy, the whole set was way under 20 bucks, doesn't need a cloud to save it or a printer to go with it. How did we ever get anything done before computers, smart phones, and power tools? I started drawing as a little kid. There wasn't TV so things like drawing, reading books, and building model airplanes were my pastime and I had some talent with pencils. Essential tremors have done a number on that but with medical help I can still do a simple pattern. It's not like it's fine art. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chuck123wapati Report post Posted December 1, 2022 9 minutes ago, doubleh said: How did we ever get anything done before computers, smart phones, and power tools? I started drawing as a little kid. There wasn't TV so things like drawing, reading books, and building model airplanes were my pastime and I had some talent with pencils. Essential tremors have done a number on that but with medical help I can still do a simple pattern. It's not like it's fine art. I hear you there. I guess us old timers forget that we were actually taught to use a pencil, compass, square and ruler in grade school, jr high and high school. Spent my whole working career learning and relearning computer programs, operating systems and I don't miss that one bit. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
doubleh Report post Posted December 1, 2022 Several years ago my son that was almost 50 years old got a degree in fine arts. During one of the classed the students were instructed to bring a square to class the next day He was the only one to bring a framing square and the only on that knew what a square was. The professor gave him the job of teaching the much younger students how to use a square. He told me that most couldn't even read a ruler. A long time ago I worked with a guy that was helpless with anything less than 1/4" marks on a tape measure. He called 1/8ths big marls and 1/16ths little marks. Later as a construction supervisor I had a crew on one job and the pusher couldn't read a tape measure. By the time the job was finished he was capable of doing so as I taught him. Evidently schools no longer teach basics, just how to have a computer do it for you. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DJole Report post Posted December 1, 2022 Inkscape is a free program that I have downloaded and installed, to help build vector-based patterns. Again, there is a learning curve involved, of course... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fredk Report post Posted December 1, 2022 On 11/29/2022 at 5:30 PM, chuck123wapati said: i use a pencil, paper and some measuring tools, ruler ,compass etc. Me too. Plus cereal box cardboard. Sometimes I need to eat a lot of cereal. The things I do for this craft! I envy you guys though; I think most of you learnt to do proper drawing in 'shop' or something. We don't have 'shop' here and I reckon its a big loss Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
327fed Report post Posted December 1, 2022 I use a box cutter and steel ruler on file folders usually. I should use my homemade walnut drafting table I built back when I tried woodworking. Got another left hand drafting machine somewhere. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MikeRock Report post Posted December 1, 2022 My computer box and monitors sit on my K&E 4'x5' drafting table, big x/y drafting machine sits on it. I can clean off a space and draw D sized drawings. 3 K&E slide rules, one a 20", LeRoy lettering set, Compensating Polar Planimeter (for measuring areas on maps when laying out mining sites).... Proportional dividers...... all within hand reach. Remember, the average of the engineers who put us on the moon was something like 25, and it was with slide rules and Marchant mechanical calculators. I had graduated engineering school a month before they landed on the moon. God bless Get out the pencils and get to work, if it looks right, it is......if not, more paper or an eraser. I know one kid who did not know what an eraser was, or what it was for. He knows NOW! He'd never used a lead pencil, only ballpoints since whenever.... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chuck123wapati Report post Posted December 1, 2022 54 minutes ago, fredk said: Me too. Plus cereal box cardboard. Sometimes I need to eat a lot of cereal. The things I do for this craft! I envy you guys though; I think most of you learnt to do proper drawing in 'shop' or something. We don't have 'shop' here and I reckon its a big loss i had several different shop classes that set it in stone but where i really learned it was basic math class long before shop class. Geometry was a hands on learning experience back in the day using these tools to draw the answers. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hags Report post Posted December 1, 2022 I've been getting the paste board from between the toilet paper at Costco. Works well for patterns, good for staining, big enough for most things, and best of all, FREE! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
doubleh Report post Posted December 1, 2022 5 hours ago, fredk said: Me too. Plus cereal box cardboard. Sometimes I need to eat a lot of cereal. The things I do for this craft! I envy you guys though; I think most of you learnt to do proper drawing in 'shop' or something. We don't have 'shop' here and I reckon its a big loss Not me. I stared drawing as a little kid. Cereal boxes? No way as I am not much on cereal. Hobby Lobby has white poster paper that isn't expensive and I use that. Cheaper than a box of cereal and more square footage to boot. I just bought a pack today while my wife was trying to wipe out their selection gf Christmas decorations as I used my last piece for a holster pattern I made Wednesday afternoon. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DwightT Report post Posted December 2, 2022 I'm one of those people who couldn't draw a crooked line if I had to. Remember the "Draw Me" ads that the American Art Institute used to put in magazines? Most people would get back a form letter letting them know that they had great potential as an artist and they should sign up for the Institute's art correspondence course right away. My letter wanted me to promise to never touch pencil to paper ever again. When computer drawing programs started to be developed, I was in heaven. I could at least now reliably draw a straight line and actually put out some engineering drawings at work. Since those early days the programs have gotten good enough that if I see something that I think might make a good leather pattern I can load an image into the drawing program (I currently use GIMP), then trace over it to create a line-art template. I can then scale that line-art to whatever size I need and print it out to have a tracing template. Probably most of you have enough talent to be able to free-hand draw a pattern directly and by-pass the computer part, but I know that won't happen for me. I think just about any computer drawing program would let you do the job. But regardless of the program it will involve spending some time with it to discover what it is capable of and what you can do with it. /dwight Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TomE Report post Posted December 2, 2022 I'm in the same boat, @DwightT. My patterns are strapwork with repeating curves that I find easiest to match/repeat using a vector graphics program. Also, I resize curved portions of the pattern to fit different horses. Used to run the GIMP on prehistoric UNIX machines back in the day. Impressive how far the GNU programs have come. Now I make patterns in Adobe Illustrator and print to PDF with scaling set to tiled, so I have a series of overlapping pages that can be taped together. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MikeRock Report post Posted December 2, 2022 Dwight, In GIMP is there a way to load a photograph, then do some contrast work and see only the edges? The edges are the pattern. I remember someone using 'some program' doing that. HELP! God bless Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tsunkasapa Report post Posted December 2, 2022 I use the cereal boxes as well. Before I lost my little buddy, I used the Alpo Variety Snaps. They are twice as thick as cereal or cracker boxes. If I need more sq ft then I go to the college bookstore. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TomE Report post Posted December 2, 2022 (edited) 44 minutes ago, MikeRock said: Dwight, In GIMP is there a way to load a photograph, then do some contrast work and see only the edges? The edges are the pattern. I remember someone using 'some program' doing that. HELP! God bless I haven't used GIMP in a while, but I see it has a "Fuzzy Selection" tool that functions like the "Magic Wand" in Adobe Photoshop. The Magic Wand selects a group of pixels with similar color/intensity values from a contiguous area, or noncontiguous areas, enabling a background to be distinguished from artwork. The stringency of selecting "like" pixels can be changed to improve the selection. The invert selection command toggles between the magic wand selection and everything else (the artwork). Once the artwork is selected, an outline can be created by editing the selection to add "stroke" and "fill." I would guess that the GIMP has many of the same commands to work with the fuzzy selection tool. ADDED: Gabor Pinter wrote a 3 part article on "Digitalizing Patterns With Adobe Photoshop" in the 2022 March/April, May/June, and July/August issues of the Leather Crafters and Saddlers Journal. He is tracing the outline of a digital image using transparent layers and the brush tool in Photoshop. Edited December 2, 2022 by TomE Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
