Layout/design Technique

[Deanimator]

I designed and laid out my pocket holster using Corel Draw. That worked out very well, especially considering that I'm a miserable freehand artist.

I'm working on an IWB holster and am running into issues relating to making adjustments to the drawing after printing the pattern.

My pattern has an integral body shield, making one side somewhat differently shaped at the mouth. By trial and error I incrementally stretch the pattern to get enough space around the gun, especially the trigger guard.

The problem is that when I stretch the overall horizontal dimension, it somewhat exaggerates certain dimensions, such as the depth of the area around the trigger guard. I can manually tighten that up on one side, but that creates the problem of duplicating that modification on the opposite side. Does it even matter if one side is bigger than the other, if I can outline around the correctly dimensioned side when the pattern's folded over? That would be fine, although that would still leave me with a correctly dimensioned cardboard pattern, but an inaccurate digital one.

I know that I'm probably missing something very simple that other people using Corel Draw or a CAD program have already solved.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[dmr400]

I use Adobe Illustrator for my patterns. Here is my process, hope it will help:

1.) Take a belly scrap and make a quick envelope style pouch with a couple inches of space around everything, throw a few lines of 3-4 stitches at intervals around the flap to hold it together. Wet mold around the dummy with the sight track dowl in place, and then take a pen and draw where the outside mold lines and key features (ejection port, cylinder, magazine release, etc depending on the gun) are. Also a reasonably straight line down the top where the site track/center of the fold is.

2.) Remove the dummy and cut the stitches. Use a rolling pin to flatten out the pattern. Scan into my computer (300 ppi, same as my documents in Illustrator so I don't lose or gain any size).

3.) Now that it's in the computer I place it into an illustrator document and "trace" for lack of a better word the outlines on a new layer. Add an appropriate gap for the stitchlines, draw the cutlines outside of those, and go from there. I use the rulers and guides EXTENSIVELY to get the spacing right, and for envelope styles I copy one whole side, paste it into a new layer, and use the reflect tool to make sure everything matches up. Or, I'll just draw half the pattern, trace it onto the leather, then flip it and draw the other half from the backside.

4.) Print the pattern on regular paper, and treat it as a disposable pattern (I've still got everything saved on my computer). No cardboard at all.

If I have made a mistake and given myself too much/too little room I can measure the error, use the rulers and guides tools in the program, and move whatever line I need to move almost exactly the right amount. Usually the second one is close to perfect, at least as far as layout goes.

I guess to answer your original question a little better, I don't use the stretch tools much. I draw each segment separately with the straight and arc line segment tools, so each corner or straight line is a different segment and can be resized independently.

I've attached a PDF of what it looks like after the mold/scan/trace process.

Glock 19 Mold Lines Marked2.pdf

Edited June 27, 2010 by dmr400

[Deanimator]

I use Adobe Illustrator for my patterns. Here is my process, hope it will help:

1.) Take a belly scrap and make a quick envelope style pouch with a couple inches of space around everything, throw a few lines of 3-4 stitches at intervals around the flap to hold it together. Wet mold around the dummy with the sight track dowl in place, and then take a pen and draw where the outside mold lines and key features (ejection port, cylinder, magazine release, etc depending on the gun) are. Also a reasonably straight line down the top where the site track/center of the fold is.

2.) Remove the dummy and cut the stitches. Use a rolling pin to flatten out the pattern. Scan into my computer (300 ppi, same as my documents in Illustrator so I don't lose or gain any size).

3.) Now that it's in the computer I place it into an illustrator document and "trace" for lack of a better word the outlines on a new layer. Add an appropriate gap for the stitchlines, draw the cutlines outside of those, and go from there. I use the rulers and guides EXTENSIVELY to get the spacing right, and for envelope styles I copy one whole side, paste it into a new layer, and use the reflect tool to make sure everything matches up. Or, I'll just draw half the pattern, trace it onto the leather, then flip it and draw the other half from the backside.

4.) Print the pattern on regular paper, and treat it as a disposable pattern (I've still got everything saved on my computer). No cardboard at all.

If I have made a mistake and given myself too much/too little room I can measure the error, use the rulers and guides tools in the program, and move whatever line I need to move almost exactly the right amount. Usually the second one is close to perfect, at least as far as layout goes.

I guess to answer your original question a little better, I don't use the stretch tools much. I draw each segment separately with the straight and arc line segment tools, so each corner or straight line is a different segment and can be resized independently.

I've attached a PDF of what it looks like after the mold/scan/trace process.

There are definitely similarities and differences in how we do it.

I lay out the basic shape in Corel Draw. What I've tried to do with this holster is to get a bitmap of a Glock 19 and dimension it for length and height. I then lay the bitmap on top of the one side of the holster drawing and size around it. If it's a simple holster, I then only need to mirror that side and combine the two. The issue that I'm running into here is that since parts of the sides are different, it's tricky to match the shape of the trigger guard area on the opposite side after modifying it.

I think I may have hit on a way to do it, namely, breaking the two sides apart and laying the smaller one onto the larger. Then I can tuck in the outline to match the desired shape.

We'll see how it works.

Thanks for your help.

[Deanimator]

I think I've finally got the body laid out properly! I think I've done more drawings than North American did of the P-51. The nice thing was being able to do a Glock 17/22 version, then take 1/2" off the bottom for the Glock 19/23 version.

[TISCo]

Deanimator,

I am in the same boat you are. I am not a freehand artist by any stretch of the imagination. I also use Corel Draw. I am new to holster making, but have been using Corel for several years now.

What I do to get the two sides of a holster as close to symetrical as the gun allows is as follows:

1. Draw the outline of the holster with the B-Spline tool. I have found this tool to be the easiest to modify a completed drawing.

2. Then stretch and adjust one side (Shape tool) to the shape I want. Lets say that I am ajusting the left side.

3. Copy, Paste, Mirror (verticle axis) and change the color of the outline. I change the color so I can tell which is the original and which is the mirrored copy.

4. Now I can adjust the right side of the original drawing to match the mirrored left side.

By the way, I have Corel Draw X5 at home and X3 at work. The B-Spline tool is not on the X3, but the Polyline tool can be used in its place if you do not have the B-Spline tool. The Polyline is just harder to stretch and re-shape.

[Deanimator]

Deanimator,

I am in the same boat you are. I am not a freehand artist by any stretch of the imagination. I also use Corel Draw. I am new to holster making, but have been using Corel for several years now.

What I do to get the two sides of a holster as close to symetrical as the gun allows is as follows:

1. Draw the outline of the holster with the B-Spline tool. I have found this tool to be the easiest to modify a completed drawing.

2. Then stretch and adjust one side (Shape tool) to the shape I want. Lets say that I am ajusting the left side.

3. Copy, Paste, Mirror (verticle axis) and change the color of the outline. I change the color so I can tell which is the original and which is the mirrored copy.

4. Now I can adjust the right side of the original drawing to match the mirrored left side.

By the way, I have Corel Draw X5 at home and X3 at work. The B-Spline tool is not on the X3, but the Polyline tool can be used in its place if you do not have the B-Spline tool. The Polyline is just harder to stretch and re-shape.

We're using similar if not identical techniques. If I didn't have Corel Draw X3, I don't know what I'd do. I make extensive use of trim and weld to modify shapes easily. I also use a tracing of a bitmap of my target firearm. I also use the fillet/chamfer tool to give myself nice rounded corners.

[Deanimator]

Success!!!

I first laid out the Glock 22 pattern on my new (and better quality) piece of leather. Digging around, I found the last usable piece from my first piece of hide. I laid out the Glock 19 pattern on it. Rather than potentially waste a piece of what looks like better leather, I cut out the Glock 19. It fits the Glock 19 great! Tomorrow I'll lay out and cut out the mouth reinforcement, paddle and the piece which retains the spring clip.

I'm REALLY looking forward to getting these holsters done and start testing them. I really hate untucked shirts and can't wait to replace my Don Hume 715Ms with these. I like the Humes, but these will work out so much better for me. Next will be versions for the M1911, Springfield MicroCompact and Browning Hi Power.

[Deanimator]

Yesterday I came across some card stock which I inherited from my aunt. That means I can print final patterns directly onto card stock and skip the step of printing to paper then gluing to cardboard.

[Messser]

You can scan the gun and make the image black and white.

Then, just print and cut to give the necessary room

[Deanimator]

You can scan the gun and make the image black and white.

Then, just print and cut to give the necessary room

That involves my bete noir, freehand design!

What I did, which is similar but takes my artistic incompetence out of the equation is to take a bitmap of a Glock 19, and use Corel Draw to trace it. (Used to be a separate program, but is now built in) I then measured my Glock 19 and dimensioned the drawing for X and Y values to match. That's how I finally got this one right. It's what I'll do when I do the M1911/MicroCompact version.

Trust me, you want me doing freehand work about as much as you want Stuttering John from the Howard Stern show as an air traffic controller.

[JHobbs]

I use Adobe Illustrator for my patterns. Here is my process, hope it will help:

1.) Take a belly scrap and make a quick envelope style pouch with a couple inches of space around everything, throw a few lines of 3-4 stitches at intervals around the flap to hold it together. Wet mold around the dummy with the sight track dowl in place, and then take a pen and draw where the outside mold lines and key features (ejection port, cylinder, magazine release, etc depending on the gun) are. Also a reasonably straight line down the top where the site track/center of the fold is.

2.) Remove the dummy and cut the stitches. Use a rolling pin to flatten out the pattern. Scan into my computer (300 ppi, same as my documents in Illustrator so I don't lose or gain any size).

3.) Now that it's in the computer I place it into an illustrator document and "trace" for lack of a better word the outlines on a new layer. Add an appropriate gap for the stitchlines, draw the cutlines outside of those, and go from there. I use the rulers and guides EXTENSIVELY to get the spacing right, and for envelope styles I copy one whole side, paste it into a new layer, and use the reflect tool to make sure everything matches up. Or, I'll just draw half the pattern, trace it onto the leather, then flip it and draw the other half from the backside.

4.) Print the pattern on regular paper, and treat it as a disposable pattern (I've still got everything saved on my computer). No cardboard at all.

If I have made a mistake and given myself too much/too little room I can measure the error, use the rulers and guides tools in the program, and move whatever line I need to move almost exactly the right amount. Usually the second one is close to perfect, at least as far as layout goes.

I guess to answer your original question a little better, I don't use the stretch tools much. I draw each segment separately with the straight and arc line segment tools, so each corner or straight line is a different segment and can be resized independently.

I've attached a PDF of what it looks like after the mold/scan/trace process.

Is that the finished ai file? I was contemplating how to do just that. you could design the entire rig in illustrator. 300 ppi have to try it.