3 Steps to Making Perfect Curves
Have you ever needed to make a perfectly curved shape? This video will show you how to do that in 3 simple steps and a bonus tip at the end to resize the vectors without distorting shape! This lesson applies to Vectric VCarve, Aspire, and Cut2D.
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Video Transcript:
Hello, everyone. In this quick tip, we're going to take a look at a question that I had from a student on how to create curvy shapes like this. And I'm going to show you how I would do this in three simple steps, and I'm also going to show you one bonus tip at the end on how you can adjust the size of that very easily.
And you'll see this is what we're going to end up with. And then this is what it would look like if you created a toolpath for it. So this is just an example for this type of shape. But the tips you learn in this lesson can be applied to a variety of projects. So let's get started. The very first step we're going to use to draw this curvy line is to get some measurements.
And for this example, we're going to make some measurements up, but I'm going to say this is 30 inches tall and we can divide this up into equal sections. So I need a measurement at the top most peak and then also to the bottom most valley. So if we count the peaks and valleys, we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, we'll call it 6 up here.
So we're going to use that for our reference. So over here in our job we are going to use the guidelines, and if you haven't used guidelines before, all you have to do is click in the top or left ruler and drag down, and you'll see that will appear a guideline, and then you can place it anywhere you like on the screen, and it is basically a construction line that you can snap lines to. So we'll place one at the bottom, and we'll place one on the side here, and you can place these any random spot you want, but you're going to want the bottom line closest to the bottom of the job.
So let's start out with that horizontal line. I'm going to right click on that. And when you do that, it's going to bring up the guideline properties. And this allows you to evenly place parallel guides to that original one. So if you choose the option that says relative to guide to create these new parallel guides.
You can set a number, which this number is going to be the number that we just counted for the peaks and valleys, so we're going to say 6 in this case. And then the position slash offset will be the total height of your project divided by the number here. So we can actually do a formula in this box. So our total height we said was 30 inches, so we'd type that in there.
And then we're going to use the forward slash to divide. And then we're going to divide by that number we just entered, which was 6. So 30 divided by 6, now you want to click the equal sign. And that will give us our answer, which in this case is 5 inches. So now we have that all set up. We're going to click create new guides.
And you'll see that will evenly create 6 new guides that are exactly 5 inches apart. So now we can click close on this. So that takes care of the horizontal guides. Now we need to take care of the vertical guide. And for this one, it's going to be from the bottom of the valley to the top of the peak.
That is going to be our measurement for this. And once again, you can either use an exact measurement or you can make a measurement up. So in this case, I'm going to right click on that vertical guideline and I will just make up a measurement. So I'm going to do relative to guide. This time I only want one guide, so I'm going to type that in there.
And then for the size, I'm going to say one and a half inches. And then click create new guide and then click close and you can see, there we go. Now our step one is complete and we have all of our measurements laid out on the screen. So now step one is complete and now it's time for step two and that is to connect all of these dots.
But before you do this, you have to make sure you turn on your snap settings up at the top here and make sure these are highlighted in blue. This is your geometry snapping and your smart snapping that will allow us to snap at the intersections of these guidelines. So there are a few ways to do this. I will show you two different methods.
The easier method is to use the draw curve tool. So if you select that tool, and then that will change your cursor where you can now start on one of the bottom or top lines. So I'm going to start on the outermost corner and I'm going to click there to snap and then I'm going to go to the left one on the next row.
And then to the right one, and then left, right, left, right, and then right click to exit. And you can see that curved the line as it went up, and now we have a perfect curve. So like I said, that was one way to do it, and that one, as you can see, was very easy to do. Now I'm going to select that and delete it.
I will show you one more method. And that's by using the straight line tool. And you can use this and do the exact same method. So we're just going to connect all the dots, just left clicking on each intersection. And then once we get to the end, we're going to right click to exit. And you can see now we have sharp points.
But to easily curve these lines, you can select the line, click the letter N to go to node editing, and then draw a selection box around all of these center nodes, and then just click the letter S, and that converts them to smooth points. And now you can click the letter N again to exit node editing, and then you can see now we have a nice smooth curving line again.
So as you can see, both of those methods are very easy to do. And now that we have this step done. It is time for step three, and that is to mirror this to the other side and then close it off to make a closed vector. So if you have an exact width, you need this part to be, which you most likely will. I would recommend right clicking on the vertical outermost guideline that will bring up the guideline properties.
And then we can do a relative guide to this one. And we only need one guide. And this will be the width that you want to make your overall part. For this example, I will say 10 inches. Now if I do a positive 10 inches, it's going to go to the right of that line. In this case, I need to make it go to the left of the line, so I'm going to switch this to negative 10 inches.
And now click Create New Guide, and then click Close. And now you can see I have this guideline over on this side. Now I can simply select this curve line that we just made. Go to the mirror tool, and I'm going to create a mirrored copy. So I'm going to make sure that's selected, and I'm going to flip it to the left side.
And you can see now we have a curve line that is mirrored from the right side. So we can close this and now I can simply just double click on this shape to put it in the transform mode, grab this peak right here and drag it to the left until it snaps to that guideline. And now you'll see these are going to be exactly 10 inches apart in the outermost measurement.
And like I said, that was just an example measurement. You can make it whatever size you'd like. But now that's done, we don't really need the guidelines anymore. So what I like to do is either delete the guidelines by going to view guidelines, delete all, or you can temporarily hide them out of your way by simply clicking this button in the top left corner of the rulers.
And that will turn the visibility of the guidelines off. Now, a very simple way to connect these lines and close them off is to select both of them and then use this tool here called join slash close vectors with a straight line. If you click that once, it will close one end. And then if you click it again, it will close the other end.
And there you go. Now you have a closed vector that can now be machined with any toolpath you'd like. And if you were making these bench parts, you would most likely use the profile toolpath to cut on the outside of that line. And then one more final tip for you, if you ever decided that you want to change either the width or the height of this, you can go back to the node edit mode, and let's say we wanted to make this 2 inches wider, you could select all the nodes on one side. So let me select all the ones on the right side, and then right click on one of them, and go to Properties, and then you want to make sure you're set to Relative. And in this case, if we want to go left to right, we're going to go in the X direction.
So I'm going to go positive 2 inches, and click Apply, and you'll see that just grew 2 inches wider. And you could do the same thing for the height, but the height is going to be a little bit more challenging because once you stretch the height, you're going to mess up these curve lines. So I would recommend just using that for adjusting the width in this case.
But after you're done, you can exit your node editing, and now you have a part that is wider. So those are all the steps it takes to create a nice curvy shape like this. Hopefully those tips helped you out, and if they did, make sure you let me know down below in the comments. That's all for this video.
Make sure you like and subscribe for more. And if you want to master your Vectric software, make sure you check out my Vectric training classes linked right here, where we go much more in depth how to use the Vectric software step by step. And included with my training courses is weekly Q&A calls, where I can answer your questions one on one and get the support you need.
And if you want to watch another great Vectric tip, check out this video posted right here.
And you'll see this is what we're going to end up with. And then this is what it would look like if you created a toolpath for it. So this is just an example for this type of shape. But the tips you learn in this lesson can be applied to a variety of projects. So let's get started. The very first step we're going to use to draw this curvy line is to get some measurements.
And for this example, we're going to make some measurements up, but I'm going to say this is 30 inches tall and we can divide this up into equal sections. So I need a measurement at the top most peak and then also to the bottom most valley. So if we count the peaks and valleys, we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, we'll call it 6 up here.
So we're going to use that for our reference. So over here in our job we are going to use the guidelines, and if you haven't used guidelines before, all you have to do is click in the top or left ruler and drag down, and you'll see that will appear a guideline, and then you can place it anywhere you like on the screen, and it is basically a construction line that you can snap lines to. So we'll place one at the bottom, and we'll place one on the side here, and you can place these any random spot you want, but you're going to want the bottom line closest to the bottom of the job.
So let's start out with that horizontal line. I'm going to right click on that. And when you do that, it's going to bring up the guideline properties. And this allows you to evenly place parallel guides to that original one. So if you choose the option that says relative to guide to create these new parallel guides.
You can set a number, which this number is going to be the number that we just counted for the peaks and valleys, so we're going to say 6 in this case. And then the position slash offset will be the total height of your project divided by the number here. So we can actually do a formula in this box. So our total height we said was 30 inches, so we'd type that in there.
And then we're going to use the forward slash to divide. And then we're going to divide by that number we just entered, which was 6. So 30 divided by 6, now you want to click the equal sign. And that will give us our answer, which in this case is 5 inches. So now we have that all set up. We're going to click create new guides.
And you'll see that will evenly create 6 new guides that are exactly 5 inches apart. So now we can click close on this. So that takes care of the horizontal guides. Now we need to take care of the vertical guide. And for this one, it's going to be from the bottom of the valley to the top of the peak.
That is going to be our measurement for this. And once again, you can either use an exact measurement or you can make a measurement up. So in this case, I'm going to right click on that vertical guideline and I will just make up a measurement. So I'm going to do relative to guide. This time I only want one guide, so I'm going to type that in there.
And then for the size, I'm going to say one and a half inches. And then click create new guide and then click close and you can see, there we go. Now our step one is complete and we have all of our measurements laid out on the screen. So now step one is complete and now it's time for step two and that is to connect all of these dots.
But before you do this, you have to make sure you turn on your snap settings up at the top here and make sure these are highlighted in blue. This is your geometry snapping and your smart snapping that will allow us to snap at the intersections of these guidelines. So there are a few ways to do this. I will show you two different methods.
The easier method is to use the draw curve tool. So if you select that tool, and then that will change your cursor where you can now start on one of the bottom or top lines. So I'm going to start on the outermost corner and I'm going to click there to snap and then I'm going to go to the left one on the next row.
And then to the right one, and then left, right, left, right, and then right click to exit. And you can see that curved the line as it went up, and now we have a perfect curve. So like I said, that was one way to do it, and that one, as you can see, was very easy to do. Now I'm going to select that and delete it.
I will show you one more method. And that's by using the straight line tool. And you can use this and do the exact same method. So we're just going to connect all the dots, just left clicking on each intersection. And then once we get to the end, we're going to right click to exit. And you can see now we have sharp points.
But to easily curve these lines, you can select the line, click the letter N to go to node editing, and then draw a selection box around all of these center nodes, and then just click the letter S, and that converts them to smooth points. And now you can click the letter N again to exit node editing, and then you can see now we have a nice smooth curving line again.
So as you can see, both of those methods are very easy to do. And now that we have this step done. It is time for step three, and that is to mirror this to the other side and then close it off to make a closed vector. So if you have an exact width, you need this part to be, which you most likely will. I would recommend right clicking on the vertical outermost guideline that will bring up the guideline properties.
And then we can do a relative guide to this one. And we only need one guide. And this will be the width that you want to make your overall part. For this example, I will say 10 inches. Now if I do a positive 10 inches, it's going to go to the right of that line. In this case, I need to make it go to the left of the line, so I'm going to switch this to negative 10 inches.
And now click Create New Guide, and then click Close. And now you can see I have this guideline over on this side. Now I can simply select this curve line that we just made. Go to the mirror tool, and I'm going to create a mirrored copy. So I'm going to make sure that's selected, and I'm going to flip it to the left side.
And you can see now we have a curve line that is mirrored from the right side. So we can close this and now I can simply just double click on this shape to put it in the transform mode, grab this peak right here and drag it to the left until it snaps to that guideline. And now you'll see these are going to be exactly 10 inches apart in the outermost measurement.
And like I said, that was just an example measurement. You can make it whatever size you'd like. But now that's done, we don't really need the guidelines anymore. So what I like to do is either delete the guidelines by going to view guidelines, delete all, or you can temporarily hide them out of your way by simply clicking this button in the top left corner of the rulers.
And that will turn the visibility of the guidelines off. Now, a very simple way to connect these lines and close them off is to select both of them and then use this tool here called join slash close vectors with a straight line. If you click that once, it will close one end. And then if you click it again, it will close the other end.
And there you go. Now you have a closed vector that can now be machined with any toolpath you'd like. And if you were making these bench parts, you would most likely use the profile toolpath to cut on the outside of that line. And then one more final tip for you, if you ever decided that you want to change either the width or the height of this, you can go back to the node edit mode, and let's say we wanted to make this 2 inches wider, you could select all the nodes on one side. So let me select all the ones on the right side, and then right click on one of them, and go to Properties, and then you want to make sure you're set to Relative. And in this case, if we want to go left to right, we're going to go in the X direction.
So I'm going to go positive 2 inches, and click Apply, and you'll see that just grew 2 inches wider. And you could do the same thing for the height, but the height is going to be a little bit more challenging because once you stretch the height, you're going to mess up these curve lines. So I would recommend just using that for adjusting the width in this case.
But after you're done, you can exit your node editing, and now you have a part that is wider. So those are all the steps it takes to create a nice curvy shape like this. Hopefully those tips helped you out, and if they did, make sure you let me know down below in the comments. That's all for this video.
Make sure you like and subscribe for more. And if you want to master your Vectric software, make sure you check out my Vectric training classes linked right here, where we go much more in depth how to use the Vectric software step by step. And included with my training courses is weekly Q&A calls, where I can answer your questions one on one and get the support you need.
And if you want to watch another great Vectric tip, check out this video posted right here.
