Guide Template Software

[HeadScratcher]

I don’t know if such an animal exists yet, but I figure once I get up and running with my yet to be purchased router, I am going to need to do various and constant calculations to figure out clearances etc.

Being both a bit of a claytons programmer and a total noob to wood working, I figure the easiest way to ensure accurate measurements every time is to write a program that tells me what dimension I need with a couple of input variables.

Would there be any interest out there if I went to the trouble of writing it?

[HeadScratcher]

Here is a very quick knock up of what it might look like... obviously it is short on a lot of other information, but this is just a rough idea.

[tomg]

What a great idea !!!!

[HeadScratcher]

Just for my own amusement I started writing up a bit of code last night behind the quick Graphical User Interface (GUI) I threw together.

Looking at some guides they seem to follow a similar 3 dimension pattern, an A, B, & C (ID, OD, & Height) measurement and a Part No.
<O:p</O:p
For quicker recall of the desired template guide, I might want to create a small database to store that data in, and perhaps another table for the router bits as that will be a factor in the final measurement.
<O:p</O:p
I think it will be many years before I can offer any real wood working advice so I will do what I can in other areas.

[HeadScratcher]

Knocking the rough edges off the user interface...
Would need to work out exactly what needs to be measured, so it can be shown on the screen.
But the idea is to have the graphic on the right hand side of screen represent the guide and the cutter in some sort of scale, so you could try various guides and router bits to mix and match and it spit out the dimensions of everything.

[chrisb691]

It's looking very interesting HS, I would like to see the final version when ready. :2tsup:

[artme]

Top idea HS!:2tsup::2tsup::2tsup:

Keep it up.:)

[HeadScratcher]

Progress is coming along nicely... Now have a good portion of the Guide side of things sorted. Still need to work on save, edit, new etc.

Before I do that I will now focus on adding the Router Bit section of the code, and add that to the graphic to get a sneak peak of the finished program.

By now it should be reasonably obvious where I am going with the idea... Are there any suggestions or anything major I have over looked?

All going well I should have the first release version ready in a couple of week for everyone to try out.

Edit:
<O:p</O:p
I should probably mention that I added a second way to choose a guide... On load it puts all the part numbers in the Part # combo box and you can just flick quickly through each of the guide you have stored in the database, or if you want more info on the guide you can choose File >> Select Guide and do it that way.<O:p</O:p

[Bob38S]

What an excellent idea.

[Superbunny]

Tops:2tsup::D:D

SB

[HeadScratcher]

Hit a slight snag... the drawing method I used for the template guide isn’t going to work very well for drawing the router bit, so I am in the process of learning another drawing method. Just going to take a little longer than expected, but shouldn’t delay things too long.

[John Saxton]

Thanks HS for your efforts ,look forward to seeing more of your application to template routing.

Tom O'donnell here on the forum is a tremendous advocate of template routing (look up Template Tom) and has in years past also made really good strides in effecting the application of templates with the use of routers.

Thanks

Cheers:)

[HeadScratcher]

Hi John, it was Tom who inspired me to write it :U

He responded to one of my early posts, and from his videos I could see his passion for templates was quite clear. So I thought to myself… templates seem like a good idea I wonder if the uptake of template use wasn’t greater because it’s too much hassle for most to do the math.

Figuring I needed to make a few calculations for my current speaker project, I might as well see if I can write something that benefits the whole community. Considerably quicker to do them on paper, but that doesn’t help everyone.

Was playing with the new drawing method last night and it doesn’t seem too hard (famous last words). I looked up router bit types (remembering I don’t even own a router yet) and Wiki said there were some 10 standard types of router bits (see attached).

So what I was thinking was have a “router bit family” as one of the parameters, and depending on what type it belongs to i.e. Chamfer etc would depend on how many points I make available to plot.

Obviously things with curves are going to be more complicated to draw so I will split each of the family members into their own code section.

I was also thinking of creating a “custom” family member for real weird stuff that doesn’t fall into any of the other groups, but that would require the user to be savvier in what they need.

[HeadScratcher]

At the point where i'm ready to start on the router bit section, I now have the guide section working with the new paint method.

Not sure how tricky it will be to do a top view of the router bit, so might only wind up with a top view of the guide and a side view of the router bit.

See how enthusiastic I feel when I get there...

[Template Tom]

At the point where i'm ready to start on the router bit section, I now have the guide section working with the new paint method.

Not sure how tricky it will be to do a top view of the router bit, so might only wind up with a top view of the guide and a side view of the router bit.

See how enthusiastic I feel when I get there...

You certainly have a task on your hands and I look forward to the final results. I do not have the same problem as I do all my drawing of each process on the computer using the Cad program, but not everyone has access to such programs, so my suggestion meanwhile while this is being sorted out is to take up graph paper 2mm square. It is quite good $2.00 per book from your local newsagents.
Samples enclosed
Tom

[HeadScratcher]

Maybe if I’m feeling really ambitious I could try that for the next project... :U

I had to create a metric >> imperial, and an imperial >> metric converter to proceed with the program.

Because some router bits provide only imperial measurements, and I can’t do the drawing based on imperial measurements (computers are kind of fussy that way), I had to work out a way to covert between the two.

So you can now store either metric or imperial, or a combination of both measurements in the database, and they will be displayed as both on the main page, but it will use the metric measurements to do the actual drawings.

[HeadScratcher]

Ok so who is ready for a bit of software you can have a play with ???

The preview edition is now ready and will be posted shortly.

I will start a new thread just to post the software and publish new versions as they become available.

Warning this first edition is so rough that I'm not even going to call it a version, it is a preview edition to give you an idea of what is to come.

I won't ask for suggestions just yet, as there is so much code missing that I might be going to include what you are going to suggest anyway. Once I have it nearly working the way I want, I will then throw it open to new features you might need.

I have no idea how it is going to install as I don’t have a computer that doesn't already have the entire .Net 4.0 framework already installed, so you may be asked to install certain components that you don’t have on your PC.

Just post back in this thread if you have difficulty installing it, and I will step you through any teething issues.

Good luck and I hope you find it useful...

Regards Paul

[Ben Dono]

A good way to get this to the mass woodworking/metal working market it to wrap this up into an iPad iPhone app! Could be some $ in it for you.. I remember some kid wrote an app where you could store the position of you car on your iPhone when you go shopping.. It uses gps and maps to show you where you parked your car. This kid made a fortune!.. Maybe it can help m find my keys too..:U

The wood/metal work market is much smaller but it would make a good app

[HeadScratcher]

Long way to go with this one Ben, but who knows :U

[Ben Dono]

Stick with it mate and good luck!
Even though wood and metal work is an old craft, old and new workers are adopting new tools to further their skill. CNC will be as common in all our workshops as table saws, battery drills in another 10 years. I still use my ancient hand tools ( can't beat the old quality ones) and love it but I'm happy to combine them with modern technology as it is needed.